Rolling with the Punches
by Matthew G Given
Summary: Life is full of changes and some are better then others but you just have to roll with the punches. Post season 5 AU. Give it a chance and you may like it.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Castle,if I did somethings would have gone differently in the past season. I am not making any profit off of this or trying to claim ownership of the show.**

**Chapter 1.**

It had been a long six months for Richard Castle but at last he was trying to put his life back together. It had hurt a lot first to have Kate Beckett lie to him and then to have her tell him that it was over and she was going to DC for a new job. That had been like being stabbed through the heart. He had been a wreck after that and vowed that he wasn't going to let a woman get as close to him as he had let Beckett get again. All his plans for the future had been tied up with her and when he found out she didn't need him in her life that had sent the whole thing into a tailspin. He didn't know what to do with himself. He had put his life on the line a few times for that future and it had all come to nothing.

Not that it was completely her fault he had taken her for granted at times and just assumed she wanted the same things out of life that he did. He came with a lot of baggage. Two failed marriages,and a daughter who was in college who he didn't want to leave. That was a lot to deal with not to mention his playboy past and the fact that no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't get the serious outlook on life that she needed him to have. He just didn't know how to shut up and stop making jokes. In the end he had failed to improve himself to the point where he was good for her. So he didn't blame her,it was not her fault that he wasn't good enough for her. Still knowing he was the one who was messed up didn't help him feel any better.

He had needed to move on with his life so that was what he had done. He had started by cutting his ties with the NYPD,without Beckett in his life there was no point in his going in there any way. He was sure this had been a god send to Captain Gates who would no longer have to deal with him. He had then finished off the Niki Heat series. To protect a girl who was a witness to a crime that was linked to the corrupt mayor Niki had to break too many rules and in the end had to leave the NYPD. This helped because now Castle wouldn't have to worry about fictional Beckett either. What Castle hadn't been ready for was for Black Pawn,his long time publisher to cut him loose.

They were polite about it of course and they made it known that they would be happy to publish any future books he wrote but they no longer wanted Richard Castle under contract to them. It had just taken him too long to write each Niki Heat book and in that time they had contracted several new younger writers who could provide more then one novel a year. Also the Richard Castle brand of crime fiction was just going out of style. Now it was all vampires and zombies and that wasn't what he wrote. He wrote hard boiled characters in situations that were somewhat based on real life. Richard Castle now found that the world he used to be king of had passed him by. In retrospect he knew he should have seen it coming. People had stopped noticing him at crime scenes and it had been a year or two since he had gotten a reaction when he introduced himself to someone. The fact was he was not famous any more but he had been too focused on Beckett to notice.

Castle had never felt more useless in his life. He spent every day looking at a blank computer screen waiting for a new idea that would put him back on top to come to him. The idea just did not come. He had in effect lost his job at age 42 and that was an awful feeling. It wasn't that he needed the money but without cases to work or a relationship he just felt empty. He did have his mother and daughter but even they didn't need him any more. Alexis was in college and apart from a bout of panic now and again brought on by her kidnapping was doing fine and didn't need him in her day to day life. Even his mother seemed to be stable(for her) and didn't seem to come home all that often. She always seemed to be busy with some new acting class or play. She didn't even need his money because her acting school was doing so well. Rick Castle just wasn't needed by anyone. In fact he felt like a bystander in his own life. It was as if even if he wasn't there his life would still somehow go on without him. It was as he was pondering these grim thoughts while sitting in his study in his boxer shorts waiting for a new story idea to come to him that his cellphone rang. He looked at the caller ID and despite the fact that the number did not ring a bell he answered it any way. That was how low he was feeling,he was answering numbers he didn't know.

"Castle." He said trying to sound normal.

There was a female voice that he knew all too well on the other end of the line. The voice didn't bring back good memories but he listened because he was intriged. This was the last person he had ever expected to call him. " I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time. This is Captain Gates of the 12th" The voice said.

Rick over came his shock just long enough to answer. "No,you didn't. What can I do for you Captain?"He asked.

" if you can fit it into your scheduel I would like to have a meeting with you in my office either today of tomorrow. There is something I would like to talk to you about." And for the first time in the two years he had known her it sounded like "Iron Gates" was asking for a favor,this peeked his interest.

"I can be there in about an hour." He said trying not to sound too puzzled but the old mystery loving part of him was starting to wake up after months of sleep. "Do you mind if I ask what this is about?"

"I would rather talk about it in person. Can you come in?" Gates asked.

"Yeah I will be there in an hour." Castle answered trying to sound like an old pro who wasn't phased by any of this.

"Okay I will tell the front desk to expect you in an hour . Now if you will excuse me I have to go." and then the line went dead.

It took a lot to get Rick Castle out of the house those days but this seemed like it would be worth it. He knew it would be painful seeing the old 12th again but he had to know what was going on. He showered and then got dressed as quickly as he could. He didn't bother shaving the unruly beard he had grown over the past few months but other then that he looked like his old self when he looked himself over in the mirror. He could feel himself coming alive again and he didn't know why. "_Hadn't he always gone into the 12__th__ for Beckett and she wasn't going to be there,so why was he starting to get excited?" _He couldn't answer that at that moment but he guessed it was because for the first time since his last book tour he had a purpose in life and somewhere to be. Even if he didn't know what it was it was a purpose.

He got to the 12th twenty minutes ahead of time. He was hoping to use the time to talk to Ryan and Esposito and find out how things had been but to his surprise he was buzzed right into Gates' office. It was as if she couldn't wait to see him. Now that he had to choose between the two he decided he liked it better when she was trying to kick him out,it was less weird.

Gates was just getting off the phone when he entered the small office and she motioned for him to take a seat. Before he could ask any questions she started to speak in her normal,calm,professional manor.

" I trust you know I would not ask you here without a very good reason so I hope you will hear me out before you make a choice. There is no reason for you to take this job except that my team thinks and when confronted with the facts from passed cases I was forced to agree that you could save some lives."

This shocked Castle but he had to speak up. "I never saved anyone's life and I am not a real cop I can't think of any case I could be of help to you on." He said flatly.

"Well there is one case that you have brought the NYPD closer to cracking then any other. In fact you are the closet thing there is to an expert on how this suspect thinks. You have managed to predict what he would do in the past and we would like you to come on board for this one case and help us nail this bastard."

That last part gave Castle all the information he needed and he knew this was not a case he wanted to get mixed up in again. Gates never got emotional so it had to be the worst person he could think of if she was calling him a bastard. "You mean 3XK." He said in a hushed tone as his name out loud would cause him to somehow appear in the room.

"Yes he is killing again and has killed at least three woman in the past ten days,we are no closer to him then we were at the start of the case." Gates said gravely.

"I thought the offical stance of the NYPD on 3XK was that he was dead." Castle said looking up at Gates.

"It was until this case." Gates responded. "The fact is when you said he didn't die on the bridge you were right and that is yet another reason why we would like you on this case. We need to nail him for good."

"Well I can see that but I am not a cop and the last time I went up against him it nearly cost me my life. I don't want to repeat that. I'm sorry but I am sure you can find some other expert." Castle said standing up.

"Of course " Gates said now standing too. "I just thought I would ask. I trust you can show yourself out."

Castle turned to go but something was bugging him and he had to ask one last question and this one would change his life. "How do you even know it is him?" He asked turning around.

"DNA doesn't lie and when he strangled his last victim with his bare hands he left plenty behind." Gates said matter of factly.

Castle then nearly panic and he raced back over to the Captain's desk. "I will take the case!" He said quickly. "But you have to get police protection on my daughter and mother right away!"

"Why?" Gates asked clearly puzzled by this turn around.

"Because there is only one reason he would use his bare hands and leave DNA behind,he is calling me out. He is letting me know he is back and he is coming for me." Castle said very quickly. He had not felt this way since Alexis was kidnapped. He then continued. "I am the only one that he cares about beating and he wants me to know that if I don't get him he will get me so my family needs police protection Now!"

Finally Gates nodded her agreement. Castle sat down to write out where his mother and daughter could be found for her. This was the worst way it could happen but Castle was back on the case.

**I promise I will not leave you hanging like last time. I have a whole story mapped out in my head and I have already figured out how I am getting into it so I will not get stuck like last time. I hope to update once or twice a week. I am sorry it can not be more then that but I am working on other stories too. Any way please let me know what you think and if you think somethings can be improved please let me know. This is my first real attempt at this type of story so all feedback is welcome. Thank you for your time and support. See you next chapter:)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Walking into the bullpen after all his time away and with out Beckett there was very strange to Richard Castle. He imagined that this is what it must have felt like to Neil Armstrong when he first set foot on the moon. He knew what everything he was looking at was and he knew what he should do but something about it all just felt alien and off. It wasn't home and he was going to have to learn the ropes.

Castle didn't even know where to go. Both Kate's desk and his chair were gone and he didn't see anyone he knew in the room Even the murder board had been moved so that is was now off to the side of Esposito's desk. Castle had heard he was next in line to run the team and the writer deduced that was what had happened. It all felt so strange and Castle felt like he had stepped into the room for the first time. Finally castle saw Ryan and Esposito enter the room from the break room. They were headed for Esposito's desk so Castle made his way over to join them.

Ryan was the first to speak when Castle joined them. "Hey Castle long time no see,how have you been?" The Irish man said with a smile.

"I have been okay,how are Jenny and Ryan Jr. doing?" Castle asked. It was strange that he was falling back into a pattern he had sworn he was done with so easily but the two men were his friends after all not just Beckett's coworkers. He then felt a little bad that he had stopped talking to them when Beckett broke up with him.

"They are both doing great,I have some pictures on my phone." Ryan said with pride. He was about to pull it out when Esposito interrupted him.

"Later,Castle did Gate convince you to work this case with us?" Esposito asked. He was clearly all business.

"I don't have a choice,he is coming after me." Castle responded flatly and the life that had been in his eyes just a few seconds before seemed to die.

"Whoa there! Isn't that a little overly dramatic?" Esposito said he was a little shocked that Castle's thoughts had gone that dark. "Ryan and I only asked the captain to call you in because you have come up with every break we have made trying to get Tyson,not because we think he is coming after you." He explained.

"Come on do you really think Tyson would leave D.N.A behind for any other reason then to let me know he is back?" Castle asked and there was a sternness in his gaze that brought home just how bad the situation was. In truth both Esposito and Ryan had known somewhere in the back of their minds that this was what was going on,they just had not wanted to admit it to themselves. Hearing Castle the man who knew Tyson best say it just made it real.

"Well then I guess we had better hurry up and put the bastard away for good." Esposito said coolly as he took a seat behind his desk.

"What do we know so far?" Castle asked gravely. This wasn't a game and he couldn't bring he usual cheer to this case.

"Only that he has killed at least three woman in the past two weeks." Esposito said as he handed Castle a thick folder. "Once we knew it was him we showed his picture around and found that he had been seen around all three woman shortly before they died,but we don't have any other leads on him. Everything we know is in that file and on the murder board."

"I guess I will bring myself up to speed then." Castle said with a sigh and he then walked over to a chair that was in a corner on the other side of the room to take a seat as he worked his way through the papers in the folder.

Kevin Ryan then decided to have a word with his best friend slash boss. He sat down in his chair at his desk but turned it around to face him. He didn't want Castle to hear so he kept his voice low. "Dude,do you think he is okay? I mean I have never seen him like this. Look he hasn't even shaved."

"Dud don't go there." Esposito said sounding a little angry that Ryan had even brought it up. "Look we don't know what was happening those last few months with Beckett,but they seemed rocky. Plus his daughter was kidnapped and now a serial killer may be after him. He isn't going to be the same guy."

"But he is our friend shouldn't we try to help him?" Ryan asked.

"Bro if he needed out help he would ask for it. He is just putting the last few years behind him,that will take a while. Plus we have got our hands full right now. Let's just work the case and see what happens." Esposito replied and then turned his chair around so he could return to work.

"Yeah I guess you are right." Ryan admitted. "I just hate to see him like this."

"So do I but there is nothing we can do about it." Esposito said.

Castle sat back and spent about half an hour reading the file and looking at the murder board. He wasn't as quick to take in the facts of the case as he had been in the past. His heart just wasn't in it because for one "she" was not there and two the case just wasn't that interesting. If Tyson hadn't been targeting him Castle would have called it downright boring. This wasn't like working cases in the old day at all. He didn't seem to have a place here. He decided he needed to change that,he didn't know how but he was going to get back into the swing of things. He didn't know why but for some reason when he saw the faces of the victims he felt it was important to not screw it up this time,he had to nail Tyson. He also wanted to prove to himself that he could do this and he wasn't completely worthless.

Castle dragged the chair with him and placed it in front of Esposito's deak. He put the file down on the desk. "It seems pretty cut and dry." He said after a few moments. Esposito looked up at him. "He started murdering with a rope like he used to and then when that didn't get your attention or mine he used his bare hands so you could get D.N.A back. I guess he must think I am still working with the NYPD because it was a million to one shot that Gate would bring me in."

"That's a good point but couldn't he have just assumed we would bring you into another 3XK case?" Esposito pointed out.

"Tyson doesn't assume anything." Castle replied grimly. "If he had known that I wasn't with the NYPD he would have come at me more directly. He wouldn't have just sat back and hoped that Gates would call me in. He wants to play against me so he would make sure he got to play against me. Notice that despite all the victims coming from different walks of life and being different ages they all lived or worked in the 12th precinct. That is him making sure I will be involved in this case."

Esposito nodded,the writer had made a good point. One of the things someone learned after working with Rick Castle for some time was that despite how silly he could be at times most of his points were good and he knew how to read a criminal mind like Tyson's. To write books about killers you have to learn to think like a killer at least a little. Esposito hoped that would be enough to finally give them an edge this time,but he wasn't fooling himself. Tyson would be a hard one to catch.

"Well at least there is one piece of good news." Ryan said and both Castle and Esposito turned around and looked at him puzzled. "If he thinks you are still working here that means he hasn't been watching you and he may not know exactly what is going on with you and your family." Ryan pointed out looking at Castle.

"Here is hoping that is just our first piece of good luck on this case." Castle said forcing a weak smile. Before anyone could respond to that someone that Castle didn't know walked up to Esposito's desk carrying a large stack of papers.

Castle took a moment to look at the new arrival. She looked like she was in her mid 20s. She was shorter then Beckett had been in fact she was kind of short for a cop. She was only about five feet four if Castle had to guess. While she was in good shape she was average and not the stunning knock out that Beckett had been. She also wore sneakers and not high heels. She had light skin and wore glasses which cover her brown eyes. Her hair was short and dark. She was wearing a simple outfit that was just jeans and a sweater. She had not said a word at that point but Castle could tell she was not sure of herself. She was trying to bluff her way through whatever it was she was doing. Castle wondered if this little girl could be Beckett's replacement but then he pushed that thought from her mind. He didn't know what the young woman was doing in the bullpen but he knew she couldn't work there full time.

"I finished looking into the backgrounds of all three victims and their families. She said in what Castle guessed was supposed to be a professional manor. "So far no links between any of them or any links to this Tyson guy." She then added a "sorry." after Esposito and Ryan looked displease with this news.

"Well then we need to start looking at friends and coworkers,there has to be a link somewhere." Esposito said taking charge.

"Yes sir but I think I am going to the bathroom first." The young woman said.

"This isn't school if you have to go,go. You don't need to ask." Esposito said and he didn't even look up at her when he said it.

"Yes sir." She repeated and she went off in the direction of the bathrooms.

"Who was that?" Castle asked after she had walked away.

"You just met detective Susan Wright. Beckett's so called replacement." Ryan said turning to face his friends.

"Give her a chance bro,this is a hard one for her first case in homicide." Espsotio said.

"So she is not up to snuff?" Castle asked.

"Well she is fine so long as you keep her away from bodies and suspects. She is the one who screwed up the interragation of the husband of the first victim so badly that it took us a whole day to get him to talk to us again." Esposito explained referring to the notes that Castle had read.

"She also gets sick every time she sees a body." Ryan added. "They say she only made detective because her old man is a cop and has some pull and I believe it."

Castle nodded all of this did not sound promising at all to him. Before he could ask anything else Esposito spoke up. "Still with the budget the way it is it took us six months to get her. She is trying and most important she is part of the team now. That means that as long as she doesn't give up on herself we don't give up on her,understood." He said in a commanding tone and both men nodded.

Castle wanted to ask some more questions both about her and about the case but it was then that Gates stepped out of her office. "I just got a call and it looks like another 3XK body has turned up. You need to get on it right away. This makes victim number four,we are not going to let him have victim number five."

"Yes sir." All three men said.

It was at that moment that detective Wright reentered the room.

"Time to move out." Esposito said and she nodded.

As Castle walked by her she stopped him. "Excuse me but who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Rick Castle,I have been called in to consult on this case." Castle said matter of factly as he looked down at the young woman.

"Oh so you are the guy they were talking about." She said after a moment. "You understand him enough that you can tell what he is thinking."

Castle winced at this description of himself. She didn't even seem to know he was a writer. "You sure that is all you know about me?" He asked. "You haven't heard my name somewhere else?"

"No,should I have?" She asked and she looked puzzled.

"I guess not." Castle said with a sigh.

"Well whoever you are I guess it was good to meet you and I hope you can help." She said as she held out her right hand for Castle to shake.

Castle couldn't explain it but there was something at that moment that made him like this woman. Not in the same way he had liked Beckett but there was something about her that made him want to help her as a friend. He knew what it was like to be the new kid on the block and to be unsure of how things were done. Even when she didn't want him there Beckett had helped Castle through his period of adjustment when he first came to the 12th and it was because of this that he decided he was going to help her. He had always been good at reading people and something about her told him that despite her mistakes and problems she really did want to help. Castle then extended his hand to her.

"Nice to meet you detective Wright,and don't worry this place take a little getting used to." He said with a small smile. This seemed to take her aback and she was on the verge of saying something else when Ryan called from the elevator. "Hey you two coming or what?" He yelled.

Castle and Wright then turned and made there way to join the rest of the team. For the first time in a long time Castle felt like he had purpose. Sure it was only one case and once person he was hoping to share some pointers with but it was more then he had when he had gotten up that morning and that was something.

**Well that was chapter 2. I am sorry it is two day late but have you ever had one of those days where every time you sit down to wright something happens and you have to get up and then you lose your train of thought? I just got through three days of that. Also sorry in advance if I get some of the details of New York city wrong. I have only been there once and while I am doing research I am sure that as someone who has spent his whole life in Delaware I will get things wrong once in a while,so sorry. Also I hope you like detective Wright because there is going to be a lot more of her in future chapters. I couldn't come up with a name I liked for her right away so brownie points for anyone who can guess which two characters from my favorite show(Doctor Who)I named her after. Oh and the next chapter will get into the case much more. Again sorry about the wait. I hope you enjoyed this chapter,and thanks for your support. See you in Chapter three!:)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The crime scene was an ally between two cheap motels in a part of the city that if you wanted to put it politely you would call not very nice. The sun was just starting to set so the shadows were growing and giving the place a slightly sinister look. It was also cold and a gust of wind blew every so often picking up the trash that was scattered on the ground and tossing it in circles before dropping it onto the grimy street once again. The whole area seemed unfriendly and felt as if it was challenging people to live there at their own risk.

As Castle,Esposito,Ryan,and Wright made their way to the trash filled ally that had been tapped off by uniforms they could smell the unmistakable scent of a body that had been dead for some time. Between the trash and the people who couldn't seem to be bothered to answer the simple questions the uniformed officers were asking them the whole place seemed to mock the body that was laying face down about half way through the ally.

Wright dashed out in front of the rest of the group and once she was ahead of them slowed to a brisk walk. There seemed to be a grim determination about her. She was looking straight ahead as she lifted the police tape and entered the ally. It was as if she was trying to prove something. She was clearly trying to prove that she could handle the sight of a dead body and be a useful member of the team. Castle smiled to himself remembering the early days and some of the insane things he had done to prove his worth to this team. He supposed he must have come a long way since then given that now he was being asked to work on a case and not having to force his way in,but at that moment he didn't feel any more useful then he did on those early days. Castle debated running to catch up with Wright but he decided that she needed to face this problem on her own.

As he ducked under the police tape himself Castle looked ahead and could see that someone else was kneeling in front of the body. It turned out it was Perish the medical examiner and Beckett's best friend. Seeing her caused the shadow of the depression that Castle had been trying to shake to return. Lanie had never really been Castle's friend just Beckett's who he knew because of her. He wasn't sure what to say to Lanie now that Beckett was no longer a part of his life and seeing her was making him think of Beckett. Thinking of Beckett was the last thing Castle wanted to do at that moment. Castle was soon distracted from his thoughts by the odor that was coming from the body,it got much stronger as he got closer.

Wright clearly wanted to dash away and be sick but to her credit she was forcing herself to stand there with the rest of the team. The one thing she could not do was make herself look down at the partially decayed corps that was on the ground. Esposito was the first to speak when they reached Lanie.

"So what do we have?" He asked looking down at the medical examiner as she turned the body which had been face down over.

"Well it looks like she was strangled with rope the same as the other victims and while I will have to get her back to the lab to be sure I would say that she has been dead about two weeks. She may be the first victim." Lanie answered professionally and then looking up at Castle she changed tracks. "Hey Castle,I see they got you to come in. Like the beard."

"Yeah,thanks." Was all Castle could offer with a week smile. Now that Castle could get a good look at the young woman he couldn't offer up much more. The victim was a white female who while she wasn't dressed expensively was dressed well enough to look as if she didn't belong in that part of town. She didn't have a purse on her so Castle guessed that they would not find any I.D. His guess was proved right when a second latter Esposito asked about this and was told none had been found. However the part that distracted Castle and made his blood run cold was when Lanie reported what he could tell just by looking at the girl,that she was between twenty and twenty-two years of age. This girl was the same age as Castle's daughter Alexis and 3XK had thought nothing of just snuffing her life out like it was a candle on a birthday cake.

"_Another reason I need to kill him this time!"_ Castle thought to himself grimly. It was while this thought was passing through his mind that his cellphone rang,it was Alexis.

Castle grabbed the phone out of his pocket and answered it. "Hey." He said rather weakly,the smell of the body was really starting to get to him.

"Dad I came back to the loft and you weren't home." Alexis said without preamble,she sounded worried. "You never go anywhere any more and there are cops following me,what's going on?" The red head demanded.

"I don't want you to panic but I was called in to work a case." Castle said calmly.

"What,Why?!" Alexis interrupted and the shock and worry could be heard in her voice.

"Well it looks like the killer could be after me,so that is why I am asking you and your grandmother to let the cops follow you until we catch the guy." Castle explained. He hated this,is little girl was in danger because of him and here he was trying to make her believe that everything was under control when it was not. He waited for Alexis to respond but she didn't after what seemed like forever she finally spoke up.

"So you didn't kill Tyson last time." She said simply in a hushed tone. Alexis was smart and she knew there was only one killer who had it out for her dad and was smart enough to make him worried.

"Yeah it's him,but I am going to get him this time" Castle responded and there was a determination in his voice that had not been there in months. "Now I know you are not going to like this but I need to know you are safe,please don't give the officers any trouble." Castle pleaded.

"No,of course I wouldn't." Alexis answered and this took Castle off guard normally he had to fight to protect his daughter but she seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. "I know how dangerous he is. I'll be careful and you don't have to worry about me." Alexis continued.

"Thanks you don't know how much this means to me." Castle replied,he wasn't sure what else to say. "Well I have to get back to work."

"Okay,I love you dad and please get him this time." Alexis said on the other end of the phone.

"I will and I love you too." Castle said and then the phone went dead.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX

The team spent the next five hours asking questions of everyone who lived and worked in the two motels. It took forever and they didn't learn much,not even the girl's name. The only thing they could say for sure at the end of the long stretch of busy work was that she didn't live in the area. So for some reason Tyson had dumped her there. One thing Castle did learn was that Wright wasn't completely useless at her job. She had a talent for asking all the right questions of people and she was very quick to note even the smallest detail down in the little notebook she carried everywhere with her. Castle surmised that this came from her days in uniform. When they were finally able to head back to the 12th Castle opted to ride with Wright instead of Ryan and Esposito as he had when they drove there. Wright didn't have any reaction to this and the first five minutes of the ride were silent. Finally Castle decided to break the ice and say something.

"Why did you decide to become a detective?" he asked looking over at the younger woman who was driving the car.

"What is this some sort of test? Why does that matter to you?" Wright asked and she looked a little annoyed.

"I just like to get to know people,I am a friendly guy." Castle said with a smile.

"Well I don't see that it is any of your business. I know everyone thinks I can't do the job and I am only here because of my family but I passed those exams without any help and I will do my job and I will get better at it." She responded heatedly.

"Look I'm sorry I don't know anything about you or your family and for what it is worth I think you can become a good detective. This isn't an easy case to learn the ropes on." Castle said trying to smooth things over.

"Another thing I don't need anyone's pity! Maybe I don't know everything yet but I will learn." Things were going downhill fast so Castle decided to change tactics.

"Sorry if I offended you it's just I am a writer so I like to know what makes people tick. That is all I wasn't trying to dig up dirt on you or anything else."

"Okay,sorry." Wright offered. "Tell you what,I will make you a deal. I will answer your questions if you will answer mine."

"Okay deal." Castle said just happy that he was back on solid ground with her again.

"You say you are a writer so why are you working cases with the NYPD?" Wright asked. This question was like pouring salt on an opened wound to Castle. He didn't want to get into his history with Beckett so he decided to keep his answer short and simple.

"I write mystery novel and for a while I was shadowing a detective because I was basing a character off of her and I needed new ideas for stories. During that time I found I had a talent for solving murders." It was not the whole truth and Wright seemed to suspect that there was more to the story but Castle decided to ask his question again before she had time to ask a follow up. "So why did you become a detective?" He asked again.

"Because I wanted to do something no one else in my family had done." Was Wright's short clipped answer. Castle wanted to ask his own follow up but Wright was too quick and too smart for him and got in her next question before Castle could open his mouth. "Why do you think this serial killer is after you?" She asked pointedly.

"Because when I was shadowing this team before we ran into him three times and each time I was responsible for nearly catching him. The last time he tried to frame me for murder and have me killed. I just barely got away alive. Tyson has a fixation with me that will not end until one of us is in jail." Castle answered gravely.

"Now that sounds like the outline of a bad novel." Wright observed.

"Maybe but it's true." Castle replied glumly and then he decided to ask his next question. "You said your family was the reason you wanted to be a detective and you said people think you got here because of your family,what did you mean by that?" Castle then held up his hand and spoke before Wright could answer. "Wait let me guess. You are a third generation cop but no one in your family has made detective before so you wanted to be the first."

Wright didn't miss a beat correcting him. "It's forth generation but other then that you are correct."

"That isn't a very interesting or good reason to become a detective if you don't like the work." Castle observed. This seemed to put some fire back into Wright.

"What did you expect some sort of tragic back story?!" She asked and there was anger in the question. "Most real cops don't have those. Some of us just want to be cops because we want to help our community. As for being a detective being the first in my family was a big reason I wanted to be one but it isn't the only reason. As a beat cop I got tired of just showing up at the scene,asking some questions,and then handing the case off. I wanted to do more. Is that a good enough reason for you Writer?!"

Castle sat quietly for a minute or more. He knew she was right he shouldn't have questioned her reasons for wanting to be a detective. She was putting her life on the line the same as everyone else. So what if she wasn't Beckett,did that give him the right to question what she was doing? "Sorry." He said at last. "I was out of line. It's just you don't seem to be handling the dead bodies part of the job well and it seems strange that you would chose this line of work."

"Well that is something I have had to deal with since I was a kid. I still can't look at a dead bird on the sidewalk or a mouse in a trap without feeling ill,but I will continue to do my job because I do like the rest of it." Wright said and she seemed to soften when she said this.

At last they arrived at the 12th as they parked Castle turned to her and held out his right hand. "Look I think we got off on the wrong foot,you're a good cop and I am sorry about what I said. We need to work together on this case do you mind if we start with a clean slate."

"It's fine with me." Wright answered turning and taking his hand. "As long as you understand one thing."

"What's that?" Castle asked puzzled.

"You are not going to base a character off of me. I don't want that kind of attention,understood?" She asked firmly.

Castle then shook her hand and a sad smile crossed his face. "Don't worry my days of basing characters off of real people are done,it never turns out well."

Wright then let go of his hand and stepped out of the car. "Good." She said with what Castle could honestly say was one of the friendliest smiles he had seen in his life. "Then come on we have a killer to catch."

"After you Detective." Castle said as he stepped out of the car and followed her back into the 12th. Maybe things would work out after all if he could just catch Tyson.

**Okay I had a piece of malware on my computer that crashed it and I lost six chapters of different stories I was working on including this one. I had to get rid of it and then rewrite that is why this one is so late the next one show be up in three maybe four days tops. Thanks for reading and I hope you are enjoying this story. Please let me know what you think in your reviews even if you hate it. The reviews are the only way I can know what is and is not working. Any way sorry about the wait and thanks for your support.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

It was late and there wasn't much going on in the 12th when the team return and huddled around Esposito's desk to have one last brain storming session before giving up and calling it a night. No words had been spoken but despite it being late and having little to go on there seemed to be an unspoken agreement between the four members of the team that they were not leaving until they had some sort of breakthrough. They all seemed to know that none of them would be able to sleep if they hadn't at least inched a little closer to catching the killer of the young girl they had seen a few hours before. After they had been bouncing theories and looking at fact for about an hour Ryan finally voiced what they were all thinking.

"We aren't going to find anything." Ryan said with a depressed sigh. "Tyson has been doing this too long and is too good. We have to wait for him to come to us,that's the only reason we know it's him in the first place. He made sure there is no way we will be able to link these victims together or use them to find him. We aren't going to learn anything else until the next body drops." All three men nodded their heads in grim agreement. They didn't like conceding this fact but it was true. Nothing they had gave them a clue and Tyson had proven he could beat them. None of them had ever felt so helpless,but facts were facts.

"It's like Tyson is the predator and the whole population of new york is everyone who wasn't Arnold in that movie." Castle grimly observed.

Wright then stood up and began pacing in front of the the desk,she had had enough of this pity party. "I can't believe this is the team with the amazing case closer rate I heard I was joining!" She said in scolding tone. "So we are just giving up?!" She asked in disbelief.

"No we are not giving up." Esposito said forcefully. "But we have to be realistic and not get our hopes up. Tyson has been doing this for years and he can't be found if he doesn't want to be found."

"Bullshit!" Wright yelled out and that got the attention of all three men,Beckett had never allowed that kind of cursing in the bullpen. One thing that had to be said for Susan Wright was that she was full of energy and at that moment she was using it to slowly take over the room.

"Look he is human and that means he needs certain things in order to exist in this city." Wright said throwing up her arms in exasperation. "He needs money,a place to stay where he will not be noticed,and he needs a way to find his victims. You are supposed to be the expert on how he thinks so where would he get these things,Shakespeare." She pointed an excusing finger at Castle.

"Well he wouldn't just do things randomly. He would have a plan and two weeks is a short time to murder four people so he must have personal information about them." Castle began,he was starting to build a theory and while it wasn't playful like it had been with Beckett it felt good to be using those parts of his mind again.

"He could just be grabbing them off of the street." Ryan pointed out.

"I don't think so." Wright countered. "If Castle is right and he does see himself as some sort of ultimate hunter then that is not how he would do it. A hunter doesn't just go stomping off into the woods shooting the first thing that moves."

Castle liked this line of thinking and joined Wright pacing back and forth in front of the desk. "Yeah he doesn't want just any old deer,he wants the biggest one he can bag." Castle explained excitedly. "He is in this for the thrill and the sport."

"That means he would want to observe people and pick his targets before moving in for the kill." Wright said thinking out loud. "Does that make sense to you?" She asked looking up at Castle she was still unsure of herself and wanted to make sure she wasn't leading the team down the wrong track.

"Yeah that is exactly what he would do,but he can only be in one place at a time I don't understand how he kills so many so quickly." Castle replied thoughtfully.

"Maybe he has a job that gives him access to people's personal information." Ryan offered.

"That may be it but it would have to be something that they all used and so far we haven't found any links between the victims." Castle said with a shake of his head.

"So this is another dead end." Wright said and frustration was showing in her voice.

"But it is a good line of thought,good job Wright." Esposito said standing up. "I think we are all too tired to go into the backgrounds again tonight. We all need to go home get some sleep and start fresh tomorrow."

"But sir we are on a roll and every minute we wait he is out there stalking his next victim!" Wright protested.

"We will not find anything if we fall asleep at our desks." Esposito said forcefully. "Now everyone go home,get some sleep,and be back here in the morning." Wright opened her mouth to protest but Esposito cut her off. "That's an order!" After that he and Ryan walked to the elevator leaving Castle at the desk and Wright to make her way to her own desk to pick up her purse.

Castle followed her over to her desk to try and smooth things over. "He was right you know. One thing I learned was that if you keep banging your head against the same wall too long you just get stuck. Sometimes eight hours of sleep does more for a case then two days of working it."

"Maybe but I hate leaving with out getting anywhere."Wright replied in an annoyed tone. "Plus that fight with Esposito is another strike against me. Maybe you all are right,maybe I don't have any business on this team." She said as she made her way to the elevator. Castle turned and dashed after her catching her just as she stepped in.

"Wait a minute. You said it yourself you passed those tests and you did put us on the right track." Castle said trying to consul her. He was very concerned that she was thinking this way.

"We don't know that it's the right track yet and it's just that I don't seem to fit in here." Wright explained as she hit the button for the garage.

"Join the club." Castle said lightly. This got a surprised look from Wright,he then proceeded to explain. "Look when I first showed up here not only did I not fit in but I had no idea how things were done. Most of the time I kept getting in the way and none of them wanted me here. I had to use my friendship with the mayor to keep myself here."

"Wait you're friends with the mayor?" Wright asked not quite believing it.

"Yeah in fact I am the reason he is still in office." Castle replied becoming distracted by his memories that were bittersweet at best. The fight he had with Beckett on that case and her not believing him had been another warning sign he had missed that things would never work out between Beckett and him. Wright just gave him a look that said she didn't believe a word of it. Castle decided to get his mind of Beckett and finish helping her. "Look my point is they will take a while to warm up to you but if they warmed to me they will warm to you. Just give it time you are a good detective. Just come in tomorrow and do your job."

The elevator then came to a stop and they stepped out into the dimly lit parking garage before they parted to make their way to their respective cars Wright turned and spoke to Castle. "Okay,I am sorry I am not normally this easily upset,thanks for talking me down."

"Don't mention it." Castle said with a small smile. "It happens to the best of us on the hard cases. See you tomorrow detective."

"See you tomorrow ." Wright replied and with that they parted company.

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When he got off of the elevator outside his loft Castle was surprised to see two uniformed police officers standing outside his front door. He didn't remember Gates saying anything about stationing officers at his home so he was puzzled. After a few moments talk with them he learned that their names were Jennings and Passwater and that they were part of the four man detail that was given the job of protecting Alexis. It seemed that Gates was not taking any chances. The other two offices were in the loft with Castle's daughter. This left Castle even more confused. It was a school night and it wasn't like Alexis to stay late anywhere on a school night. He decided he wasn't going to learn anything standing in the hall so he unlocked the door and stepped inside.

The first thing Castle had to do when he stepped inside the loft was explain himself to officers Edwards and Simpson. They had been fully briefed on 3XK and insisted on checking Castle for weapons and seeing a photo I.D before they would let him go any further into the loft. Castle would have found this funny if he didn't know how deadly serious it was. All these precautions were warranted,still the two officers looked a little embarrassed when once Castle proved he was in fact himself. Castle was too tired and too worried to harp on the point that they were making it so hard for him to get into his own home instead he asked the officers where Alexis was. Simpson told him that she was watching Tv in his office. Castle made his way over the the open door of the office where he had written so many of his former best sellers.

When he entered the office the Tv was on softly,some sort of PBS history program was playing but that was not what caught Castle's attention. Alexis had fallen over on the couch dead tired. Castle suspected she had tried to wait up for him because she was too worried to go back to her dorm without seeing him. He smiled a sad smile at this,she was clearly beat and he didn't have the heart to wake her up. He walked into his bedroom and got a blanket and covered her with it instead. Now that he saw her there he didn't want to lost sight of her,not after the day he had. He retrieved another blanket and made himself comfortable in the recliner in the corner. He could see his daughter there and now content that she was as safe as he could make her he drifted off to sleep at last.

Castle had been afraid that he would have nightmares when he finally got to sleep but it turned out he was way too tired for that and he just had an empty dreamless sleep. He would have slept half the day away if an annoyingly loud musical tone had not woken him up.

"What in the world is that?" He asked no one in particular as grogginess of sleep slowly left him.

Alexis was waking up now. "It's my cellphone's alarm clock." The young redhead mumbled.

"Well where is it?" Castle asked as he slowly got up out of the chair. He then stretched and felt the lower portion of his back. Sleeping in the chair so close to Alexis may have helped him feel emotionally better but it didn't do a thing for the middle aged man's back. "_I must be getting old." _ Castle thought to himself. _"A few years ago I could sleep in that chair every night of the week and be just fine."_

"My cellphone is in my purse where I always keep it." Alexis said standing up and suddenly she was wide awake. She quickly found her purse and turned off the alarm. She then looked up at her father and began speaking very quickly. "Look dad I am glad you are okay and I want to talk about all of this but right now I have a class that I am going to be late for if I don't hurry up." She explained quickly.

Castle smiled at this. His daughter was always the responsible member of the family. Then all of the sudden the wheels in his head started to turn,just like they did in the good old days. Alexis was about to leave the office when Castle dashed over to her. "Where did you say you keep your cellphone again?" He asked.

"In my purse,where else?" Alexis answered clearly puzzled.

Castle then grabbed her and hugged her while kissing her forehead and without bothering to shower or anything else ran for the door. "Thanks!" He yelled back to her. "I have to get to the 12th I think you just broke this case for me." and then he was gone slamming the door and leaving a very puzzled Alexis behind him.

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Castle made the trip to the 12th in record time and excitedly dashed into the elevator. The ride up seemed to take forever,once it finally ended he searched for the team. He found them all in the break room getting a much needed morning cup of coffee. He didn't say hello or anything instead he just blurted out his idea. "I know what Tyson is doing for a living." He said excitedly. Everyone seemed taken aback by this. This was not the unsure of himself Richard Castle that had been working with them the day before,this was the old Richard Castle who was so sure of himself he wasn't afraid to let everyone know he had figured out something they missed.

"What,how?" Wright asked in disbelief.

"No purses were found with the bodies,why?" Castle asked quickly taking a step into the room.

"We know why,Tyson ditched them so that the woman wouldn't have I.D on them and it would take us longer to find out who they were." Ryan answered as he took a sip of his coffee.

"No,that wasn't it." Castle said forcefully.

"Then what was it?" Esposito asked. Part of him thought that Castle had finally lost it but another part knew the man too well to dismiss his crazy theories out of hand.

"It was so we wouldn't find their cellphones." Castle explain and everyone looked at him confused. "I bet if we look into it we will find that all of them got new contract cellphones recently. You have to give out a lot of personal information to get those,You can get them at any electronics store,and it is the sort of connection we would miss if we didn't have the cellphones to look at. I am telling you all these victims bought new cellphones at the same electronics store."

All eyes then turned to Esposito. "It's worth looking into." He said after giving it a moment's thought. "Let's start looking into their credit histories and talk to the next of kin and see if we can back this up." He said to the group.

"Yes! Castle said and he did a fist pump in the air. He hoped this would pan out because if it did it meant the old useful Richard Castle was back and they would be one step closer to catching a monster.

**Well that was chapter four. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for your support and even if you didn't like it please let me know why with a review or PM. Thanks again for reading.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Castle went through paperwork and helped with phone calls and interviews over the next few hours and was glad to see that it looked like he was right. It seemed that all the victims had sometime in the past couple of months gotten new cellphones at some big electronics store called Next Gen Electronics. Castle was very happy to be proven right and everyone was patting him on the back for giving them a big break in the case but it just felt wrong. This wasn't supposed to happen without Beckett there. He felt like he was cheating on her even if she had left him six months before,he only did the job for her and no matter how much he tried he couldn't completely shake the emptiness and guilt he felt at that moment. Fortunately Castle was given a distraction in the form of Esposito calling a meeting at his desk. Now that they thought they had found where Tyson was finding his victims the question was what to do with the information.

"Well we think we know where to find Tyson so that is good but now the question is how do we catch him." Espisoto stated as he took a seat behind his desk.

"Yeah chances are he will see us coming he knows all of us and if we start asking questions when he is not there then there is will go to ground and we may never find him again." Ryan observed grimly.

"It's like trying to catch a wild animal." Castle noted. "If he so much as smells us he will make a run for it,we have to be careful."

"I guess calling up the store and asking about the employees is not an option?" Wright asked.

"Are you kidding?" Ryan answered in disbelief. "What if he answers the phone and bolts before we can get there?"

"Plus we all know how good he is with computers and electronics,he could have the lines and computers tapped." Esposito pointed out.

"Okay it was just an idea,sorry." Wright said quietly and with nothing better to do she returned to reading her case notes.

"Another thing we need to remember is that a lot of times he works with a partner,and in this case whoever it is may be watching the store when he isn't there and reporting back to him if someone shows up asking questions." Castle pointed out suddenly not feeling so useful.

"Yeah and I don't think he would give a correct address to his boss so getting a warrant for their employee records would do no good." Ryan noted as he stood up to stretch,he had been sitting for a few hours and needed to move around a little.

"Well I don't think we have any other choice." Esposito said after a moment of thought. "All of those things could go wrong but we can't let him murder another woman. We are just going to have to go there and hope he is there when we turn up."

"That's not a great option." Castle said with a shake of his head.

"Well what else do we have?!" Esposito demanded raising his voice. "We can't sit back and do nothing because of what may happen."

"Hey what about me?" Wright called out rather loudly with some excitement showing in her voice. All eyes then turned to her with questioning glances and she continued rather meekly. "I mean he has never seen me so...what if...we found the manager and then got me in there undercover as a new employe and I could then contact you when Tyson shows up?"

Esposito thought about this for a minute and when he responded it was in a guarded tone. "We would have to clear it with Gates first. Plus do you know enough that you could pass for someone working in an electronics store?"

"I know enough that I built my home desktop myself." Wright replied. "Trust me I know my way around electronic stores."

"Well it seems like our best shot,I think it's a good idea." Esposito said at last.

"Well I think it's an awful idea." Castle piped in standing up. "This isn't some petty crook we are dealing with,it's 3XK. If he spots her he will kill her." He said as he leaned on the opposite side of Esposito's desk and looked his old friend in the eye.

"I am a trained officer and know what I am doing!" Wright huffed,she seemed offended. "It was just a few weeks ago that I was working the streets. It wouldn't be the first time I had to deal with a dangerous suspect." She pointed out.

"Don't take this the wrong way but Tyson isn't like anyone you have had to deal with before." Ryan piped in. "He got the drop on Castle,Beckett,and Me. He's very good and the smartest suspect we have ever had to deal with and the only reason Castle and I are alive today is because he wanted to toy with us. If he decides to kill you he will kill you." Ryan seemed to be hoping this would deter Wright but it had the exact opposite effect. It just made her more determined then ever to push forward.

"No offense but he has never had to deal with me. I took an oath to protect the people of this city and I am not about to sit back and do nothing and let this coward who hides in the shadows kill another woman just because taking him down is dangerous. In case you have forgotten it's our job to stand between the citizens of this city and harm!" She said this so forcefully that Ryan instantly shut his mouth and didn't dare reply but Castle wasn't done.

"He got the drop on Beckett,you can't let Wright do this. She will get herself killed." He pleaded with Esposito.

"I don't know who this Beckett was but just because she screwed up is no reason to hold me back!" Wright fumed. This hurt Castle. He had been wrong about he and Beckett being meant to be together and now someone was calling into question her skills as a cop,had he been wrong about that too? Was there anything in the past five years that he had been right about?

"She was ten times the cop you will ever be!" Castle lashed out.

Wright was taken aback by this and didn't have a ready response to it. She could tell she had touched a nerve with Castle. She didn't know what was wrong but she didn't want to make it any worse so she just sat back down at her desk. She was still angry but she could tell she had hurt Castle somehow and she felt bad about that,even if she had been justified in what she said. Esposito then decided to take control of the situation.

"That's enough." He said in a calm but commanding tone. "The fact is Wright is right." Castle winced at this awful play on words but he didn't say anything and Esposito continued. "This is our best shot at catching Tyson and we can't pass it up. Find out what you can about the manager." He said looking at Wright. "I am going to go to talk to Gates and get this cleared with her." Wright then pick up her cellphone and began using it's internet search feature to find the number for Next Gen Electronics. Esposito had to pass her desk to get to Gates' office and as he did he stopped to speak to Wright. "Just remember Tyson is extremely dangerous,don't let your guard down for a second." He said gravely.

Wright then nodded and replied. "I'll be careful Sir." Everyone then started getting to work.

Castle sat down in his chair. He was not happy. It wasn't just what Wright had said about Beckett who he had to admit he still loved despite himself but he really didn't like the idea of her going up against Tyson. He had only known Wright for less then 48 hours but he still counted her as a friend and after losing so much in the past few months he didn't want to lose,or even risk losing anything else. Still there was nothing he could do to stop it so he decided that he had better help the team and make sure they were ready for anything. Castle couldn't remember the last time he was this much of a confused wreck but at least now he was doing something about the confusing mess his life had become,he just hoped it would be enough.

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Gates approved the plan and it was decided that they would talk to the manager at his home since there was less chance of tipping off Tyson there. Castle spent the next few hours feeling like a third wheel so around one o'clock he decided to go home. He was just about to enter the elevator and make his way down to the parking lot when Wright came running up to him.

"Wait." The young detective called out. Castle turned to face her but at that moment the last thing he wanted was another fight. When he had been baited into defending Beckett it had brought all the old feelings back and at that moment the wound felt fresh again. He could hear her rejection ringing in his ears again and he just wanted to get home so no one would see him in his current state.

"What is it?" Castle asked without really looking at Wright. The joy that he had felt that morning had been replaced by utter defeat once again. "_I really am a manic train wreck." _Castle thought to himself before turning his attention to the young woman sanding in front of him.

"I just wanted to say I am sorry for upsetting you." Wright said and Castle looked a little perplexed this was the last thing he had expected her to say since the more he thought about it the more he came to the conclusion that he had been out of line. He was about to say something but Wright wouldn't let him. "I am not sorry I stood up for myself but I can tell what I said about Beckett hurt you a lot and I am sorry I did that."

"Thanks." Was all Castle could manage to say. For some reason the elevator was taking a long time to reach the floor and he wanted to get out of the whole situation.

"You were very close and I guess it ended badly,right?" Wright observed quietly.

"Yeah." Castle admitted dryly and then for some reason he found himself going further. He had kept his feelings more or less pent up for six months and at that moment it was like a floodgate opened. "For five years my whole life revolved around her and then she just left like it was nothing. I gave up everything and attached all my plans for the future to her and then it was all too much and she had to leave because I was putting way too much pressure on her."

"That's rough." Wright said then wishing she could back out of the whole conversation but being that she had started it by poking around she didn't see a way out.

"The worst part is that I don't even know what I am doing here now." Castle said and he waved his right arm to indicate the bullpen. "I mean the only reason for all of this to exist in my world or for me to even get involved was to put me together with Beckett but now she is gone and I don't know what the point of all of this is or why I am even a part of it." It was at that moment that the elevator dinged and it's doors opened. Castle was glad it was empty and he would be riding down alone. Just as he stepped in Wright had one more thing to say.

"Did you ever think that maybe you got it backwards" Wright said quickly and then she explained. "Maybe instead of this bringing you to Beckett maybe Beckett was supposed to bring you to this."

"I never thought of it like that." Castle admitted.

"You are good at it and you kept me from quitting. Maybe this is what you were meant to do. I don't know I am too young to really give advice but I don't like seeing people depressed so I hope this helps." Wright said and then she turned to walk away.

"Well thanks." Castle said and he smiled a sad smile to himself. "It's been a while since anyone tried to cheer me up." Then the elevator door closed and Castle was gone.

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When Castle got home he found Alexis waiting for him again. He deduced that she must be skipping a class to see him. This concerned him since his daughter never put anything before her school work. On top of thinking about Beckett he was now worried about her. He decided to let her started talking to him since he was far too depressed at that moment to ask any questions. He sat down on a stool at the kitchen counter and waited for Alexis to start.

"Dad we need to talk." She said in a business like tone. Castle could tell she was worried so she had worked out what she was going to say in advance like a speech.

"Sure Pumpkin,what about?" Castle asked trying to sound more upbeat and sure of himself then he really was at the moment.

"It's about all of this." Alexis began. "3XK,Your working with the police again,and this whole Beckett thing that is still going on." Castle had been expecting the first two subjects to come up but the last one took him by surprise. He had happily avoided talking about what happened between him and Beckett with his daughter for months and truth be told he didn't want to talk about it at that moment. Still he guessed that the way it had changed him was effecting his daughter(as much as he had tried to hide the changes he had gone through from her he knew she had seen them and they had effected her.)so he guessed she had a right to ask him about it. He decided he would answer her question up to a point. He just wouldn't say anything that would make Beckett look bad,after all since she wasn't there to defend herself that would hardly be fair.

"First off I want you to know that I didn't stay here last night for you." Castle was surprised to hear this. He had assumed that his stubborn and headstrong daughter had just fallen asleep by mistake. Before he could ask for more details she pressed forward. "I was going to keep this to myself but...my counselor says I need to be honest about my feelings...and that after what happened this spring...that this is normal but it doesn't...feel..normal and I don't want you to worry because I will be okay..but I do need you to know what is going on with me." As she said this a small tear escaped from her eye and make it's way down her cheek. Castle took this as a prompt to stand up and hug her.

"It's okay." He said over and over again in a calm soothing tone. "I understand. Is it the PTSD again?" He asked looking down at his little girl. She nodded indicating that it was but she wasn't ready to speak at that moment. "How bad is it?" He asked and he was afraid of what the answer would be. Castle was still kicking himself for failing to protect his little girl all those months ago. It took Alexis a minute before she was ready to answer and Castle waited for her to reply.

"It's not as bad as it was." Alexis finally responded and this was a relief to Castle since it had been bad those first few weeks after they had gotten back and it had taken him nearly a month to get her to go see someone. "But I have had four small panic attacks. It's just the idea that there is someone out there looking to hurt me or you it just has me so scarred. I used to never think about dying but since the spring I think about it all the time and now that Tyson is after us I am really scared."

Castle could tell it took a lot to get her to admit this so he decided to try and reassure his daughter. "I know it's scary and I can't make any promises but I can tell you that we have a really good lead that we will be tracking down tomorrow and we trying to put Tyson away for good."

"Okay." Alexis said and it was about the best response Castle could hope for at that time. "Still do you mind if I stay here a few days. I know I made a big deal about wanting to be on my own but I feel safer here." This shocked Castle he never thought that Alexis would think she needed his permission to stay in their home,he guessed it was another sign she was growing up. She now seemed to think of the loft as his home and not their home,this made Castle mixture of sad and proud at the same time.

"Of course you can stay,you don't have to ask." Castle answered and wave of relief washed over Alexis' face.

"Good,now here is the other thing I wanted to ask you. Do you still like me?" This one shocked Castle and hit him right in the heart. His own daughter thought he didn't like her. He had no idea what he had done to bring on these feelings in her but he felt very guilty and sad. He couldn't stand up he had to sit down on the floor. Alexis saw what she had done and dropped to the floor beside him. "I'm sorry I didn't mean it that way." She said and he could hear the worry in her voice.

"Well what way did you mean it?" Castle asked flatly without looking up,he was now broken.

"What I meant was I know that you love me but I don't know if you like me any more." Castle looked up at her hurt and he couldn't think of anything to say so Alexis continued. "What I mean is since Beckett left I get the feeling that you don't like me enough to move on with your life. It's like you are letting yourself die piece by piece. I guess what I am asking is will I ever get my dad back?" Alexis asked sadly.

"I want to come back and believe me you are the most important thing in the world to me. I am sorry I keep letting you down." Castle finally replied looking at his daughter and it was now he who had tears in his eyes.

"Then why don't you come back,aren't I good enough reason for you to move on with your life?" Alexis asked.

"Yeah You are right you are." Castle said. He then made a choice,it was the hardest choice he had ever had to make in his life be he decided he had to do it. He would put Beckett completely behind him,he had to do it for Alexis. He couldn't just push his feelings down anymore he had to get rid of them. Beckett was gone and it was time for him to move on. Even if the only way to do that was to return to his old playboy ways at least for a time that was what he would do in order to make himself the same fun loving guy that Alexis could count on to brighten her day. He wasn't going to say anything be he decided that it was time for him to start dating again. "I promise I am getting better and my days of moping around here are done. You are going to get me back it just may take some time." He explained.

"I don't expect anything to change over night,I just need you back dad." Alexis said. "Thanks I don't want to butt into what happened between you and Beckett but I have felt like I was watching you die."

"Don't worry you wouldn't have to see that any more." Castle said reassuring Alexis.

"Okay and that brings me to the last thing I want to talk about. I worry about you every time you work a case. Are you just back for this one case or are you going to start going in every day again?" Alexis asked. Castle began thinking about this hard. It was true he was only supposed to be back for one case but the truth was he was sure he could get back on the team if he wanted to. The question was did he want to? There was the danger and the fact that he wasn't trained,except he kind of had been. He had five years of training with the best detective on the force. The truth was he did miss the team and he had warmed to Wright,not in the same romantic way he had to Beckett but more in a big brother with a little sister or a teacher with a favorite student kind of way. Still there was Alexis to think about,but she was an adult after all and he knew she could cope with whatever he decided. He decided that he wouldn't make a choice until after they caught Tyson.

"I need you to understand something." Castle said with a sigh looking his daughter in the eye. "I haven't decided anything yet but I do have a talent for this work and it does help people so there is a draw and it give me a purpose."

"But I though the only reason you did it was to be near Beckett and she is gone." Alexis protested.

"So did I but I have learned that the job it's self also fulfills me. I don't know maybe I am growing up at last." Alexis smiled at this and Castle continued. "I just need you to understand that if I do go back it's not because I like being in danger,or I am trying to get close to someone,or I think it's a game,or even that I don't care about you. It will be because this is what I want to do with my life. Use the skills I honed as a writer to help bring closer to families and save lives by taking killers off of the street. Do you think you can support me if that is what I choose to do?" Castle asked and he wasn't sure what he would say if she said no.

After a moment Alexis looked up at him. "Yeah I think I can support you doing that. I can't promise I will not worry but if you want to help people by working with the police I will support you."

"Thanks." Castle said and didn't think he had ever been more proud of her. He knew how hard his working with the police could be on his daughter sometimes.

"Now I skipped class when I had a panic attack so I don't have anything else to do today and I haven't had lunch so can we order a pizza and watch some movies,it's been so long since I spent any time with you."

"Sure thing." Castle replied and then added with a smile. "Cutting class? I guess you are a Castle after all." Castle then pulled out his cellphone to order the pizza. Maybe this day wouldn't end so badly after all. Thanks to his talk with his daughter he finally felt like maybe he could get his life back on track. Tyson was still out there somewhere but Castle was not determined that the monster would not get away from him this time.

**Okay that was chapter five and I know the plot didn't move forward at all but I felt these character moments were important. I don't expect this to be a very popular chapter. Just so you know that I understand why you may not like this one. I hope I got Alexis right. She is my favorite character but I find her hard to write. Any way thanks for your support and the story will move forward next chapter. I don't like giving things away but in the next chapter 3XK will show up in the flesh,so you have that to look forward to. Any way thanks for reading and see you next time.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The next day Castle was woken up by something he had not heard in years,his radio alarm clock. He had not used it in so long that he had forgotten how to set it and it took him quite some time to figure it out the night before. It had never been normal for him to wake up early,he was of course a creature of the the night and slept in. That was before,now he had decided to get himself back into shape and that meant waking up at 5:30 am sharp. He had to force himself out of bed with everything in him screaming at him to go back to sleep but he reminded himself that he was doing this not only for himself but for Alexis. His daughter needed her father back and getting back into shape was an important step on that road.

As Castle looked at himself in the bathroom mirror after using the toilet he couldn't believe he had let himself fall apart that much. He was unshaven,he had stopped bothering to brush his hair,he had bags under his eyes,and worst of all he was at least thirty pounds over weight. He had never been overweight before in his life and now he didn't like it much. It had sort of sneaked up on him. He had never been one to exercise for exercise sake or watch what he ate but he had always eaten small portions and had hobbies that kept him active. Over the past year or so he had given up most of his hobbies and when Beckett left he had started eating and drinking way too much. That was how he had come to be in the sorry state he was in at that moment. He was very angry with himself for getting into this mess that would be very hard to get out of now in the first place but he knew dwelling on the past wouldn't help so he decided to get to work fixing the problem.

He wanted to have time to exercise,shower,and shave and still get to the precinct by eight so he could see Wright before she went in under cover. Alexis had managed to take his mind off of his problems the night before but he really was worried about Wright and there was something about the whole case that just felt off to him. The instincts he had finely tuned while working with Beckett were kicking in and while he couldn't put his finger on what was off he just knew that something was off with the case. He hoped he could figure out what it was before it bit him or someone else in the ass.

Castle decided to start his work out with some push ups,he remembered being able to get to one hundred easily when he was a young man. His arms protested every single push but he forced himself to keep going still he only made it to twenty before he gave in to his complaining limbs. He was sweating at that point so he went to the kitchen and got a drink of water and then returned to his bedroom to continue the ordeal that lay before him.

Rick Castle next decided to do some situps,that was a huge mistake. The pain was almost unbearable and it took a lot of effort for him to get up to ten of those. He hoped this work out would get easier as he lost weight because at that moment he didn't know how he was going to be able to get through this routine every single day. "_This is the worst thing you could ever wake up to. Okay that is not true,finding Hagred from Harry Potter beside you in bed is the worst thing you could wake up to,but this is a close second." _Castle thought to himself. He lay on the floor for a minute of two catching his breath before he forced himself to stand up and wipe the sweat from his forehead. He then took another big gulp of water before he dressed in some old jeans and a sweatshirt and put on a pair of sneakers. His body didn't want him to but he had decided he was going to get a run in before he showered and got ready to head into the precinct.

It was one of those crisp cold late fall mornings and the sun had just come up. Despite his legs protesting at every step Castle ran for two miles and then turned and headed home. His legs felt like plants of wood by the time he got back to the loft but he had to admit that the run had done him some good. Getting out into the early morning sunlight had cheered him up to no end. It was one of those mornings that despite being cold was rather bracing and everyone he passed on the street seemed rather cheerful. It was the type of day that made it hard to believe that there was anything wrong with the world. Not to mention that getting out into the sunlight for something other then a body or some other depressing event had been a big help too. Castle was gasping for breath when he stepped inside the loft but over all he felt pretty good. That still didn't stop him from flopping down into the first chair he saw,but he couldn't deny that he felt good at that moment.

"Richard what have you been doing to yourself? You look half dead." Castle heard an all too familiar voice call from just out of his field of vision.

"Exercising." Castle answered as he stood up and turned to face his mother. She standing at the kitchen counter pouring herself a cup of coffee at that moment.

"Since when does Richard Castle exercise?" The redheaded actress asked in disbelief.

"What are you even doing up so early?" Castle asked trying to dodge the question from his nosy mother.

"I was just having trouble sleeping." The older woman answered.

"Is it that student that quit?" Castle asked they both knew who he was talking about,his mother hadn't talked about much else for the past two weeks. "Just because she quit and didn't call doesn't mean anything is wrong. She was a young girl and she most likely just decided being an actress wasn't for her." The writer said trying to reassure his mother.

Martha just shook her head. "I am telling you Richard she wouldn't just quit. She didn't have any family here and she came to New York to be an actress." Castle tried to interrupt to calm her down but she was becoming emotional and just plowed ahead. "I have loved the theater all my life so I can tell when someone else loves it too. Jenifer loved the theater and she wouldn't just quit." Castle nodded that he understood. He could tell his mother wasn't making a mountain out of a mole hill. True as an actress she did have tendency to do that,but he could tell this time she wasn't and was very worried.

"Have the police done anything yet?" Castle asked.

"As far as I can tell they have not done anything since that nice young man took my report and explained that there wasn't much they could do." Martha answered with frustration showing in her voice.

"Mother when I go in today would you like me to see if I can find out anything?" Castle asked trying to get his mother to calm down. He knew there was little he could do but maybe if he did what little he could it would help his mother feel better.

"Thanks,that would help Richard." Martha replied and relief was showing in her voice and then she added with pride. "I know if anyone can find something it's you kido."

Castle smiled at this it was nice to know that at least his mother understood why he needed to do this and even if it was from his mother it was good to hear that someone though he was good at solving cases.

"I don't suppose you have a picture of her,do you?" Castle asked suddenly he knew his mother didn't have any reason to keep a picture but he asked on the off chance since it would make it easier to find the young woman.

"You know,I do." Martha answered and then she walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs to her room,she returned a few minutes latter with her cellphone in her hand. "She took a picture of us together one night after class because she was very happy with how she had improved. If I can just figure out how to get this thing to show pictures you can see it." The older woman spent a minute or two fiddling with her phone,Castle tried to help her but she would not let him,at last she managed to open the photo app and display a picture of herself standing beside a happy young woman. When Castle got a good look at the the woman's face his blood ran cold. He tried not to let his shock show,he didn't want his mother to know what he knew until he got to the precinct and made absolutely sure he was right.

"Can you email that photo to my phone so I can take it with me?" Castle asked trying to sound as if everything was normal.

"That is one of the things Alexis was able to teach me how to do." The actress answered and then began fiddling with her phone again.

"Good...I am going to go take a shower now." Castle said and then turned and quickly left the room. He was glad when a couple of closed doors were between him and his mother he was not sure how much longer he could keep up the act and fool her. To tell the truth he wasn't even sure if he had fooled her or if she was just refusing to bring up the subject for reasons of her own. All he knew was that if what he suspected was true she would be heartbroken so he didn't want to even bring it up until he knew for sure. He decided to try and put the whole mess out of his mind for the time being. That was easier said then done but he had to take a shower before heading to the precinct so for the time being there was nothing he could do any way.

Castle got dressed quickly after the shower and pulled on a jacket. He then exited his bedroom and made a beeline for the door,trying to leave without running into his mother but fortune was not on his side. Just as Castle reached the door and put his hand on the nob he heard her voice and it was somber,he new he couldn't dodge the question she was about to ask. "Richard I have always been able to tell when you are trying to hide something from me so what are you trying to hide from me? I know that you know more about Jenifer then you want me to think you know. What is it?"

"It's...nothing." Castle answered lamely.

His mother gave him a stern look that told him she wasn't buying any of what he was selling. "If it's nothing then why don't you tell me?" She demanded.

Castle sighed,he knew when he was trapped. "Mother please sit down." He said motioning to the living room sofa. For once in her life his mother didn't argue with him and quietly sat down. "I want you to understand that I am not sure about any of this and I wanted to confirm this before telling you,that is all." He explained.

Martha nodded that she understood. "Whatever it is I need to know now. Richard you know me better then to think that this news,whatever it is will break me so just spit it out!"

"Fine,...the last victim we found was a Jane Doe who has been dead for almost two week." Castle began reluctantly and tried to continue but he paused when his mother's face went white and then she looked up at him gravely and finished his sentence. "But now you know that girl is Jenifer." and then she lowered her head in sadness.

"I am not sure." Castle injected quickly and he raced over and sat down beside his mother on the couch . "I only got a quick look at the body and the woman had been dead so long that I can't be positive,it may not be her."

A moment later Martha looked up and a single tear was making it's way down her cheek and Castle saw something in her face that he was not used to seeing,it was a mixture of anger and hate. "Richard I want you to get this son of a bitch!" She said and Castle was so taken aback he didn't know what to say. "I will be fine but I want you to go in,find him,and make sure he pays for this." All Castle could do was nod and then stand up. He didn't know what to say,a young woman his mother cared about had been murdered because Tyson wanted to get to him. The only thing Castle could think to do at that moment was what he had been told to do so he did it,he walked out of the loft vowing that Tyson would not slip through his fingers this time.

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When Castle got to the precinct Wright was just walking into the bullpen from the direction of the bathrooms. She was wearing jeans and a blue T-Shirt with red lettering on it that said "NextGen Electronics.",she had clearly just finished dressing for her undercover operation. A good night's sleep hadn't made the idea of sending her up against Tyson sound any better to Castle but at that moment he had other things on his mind. Everyone seemed to be making their way to Esposito's desk so that was where Castle headed.

"Okay I have got the wire on and I am ready to go." Wright said as she reached the desk.

"Here are the cell numbers for Me,Esposito,and Castle." Ryan said said as he handed Wright a small piece of paper. "Program them into your phone and if you get into trouble and the wire doesn't seem to be working for some reason call one of us."

"Got it." Wright replied.

"Okay let's run over the plan one more time." Esposito said walking over to the murder board which now had a diagram of the electronics store and the surrounding streets drawn on it.

"Before you get started on that there is something on my phone I think you all need to see." Castle said sprinting up beside Esposito.

"What is it?" Esposito asked.

"I think I know who our Jane Doe is." Castle said gravely and then as everyone gather around he pulled up the picture on his phone. "She was a student at my mother's acting school who just stopped showing up about two weeks ago. Her name is Jenifer Alan," Castle explained.

"Oh my god,is your mother okay?" Wright asked in shock she wasn't sure what else to say.

"Yeah,she is fine." Castle answered.

"That's her,we had better work on finding next of kin now." Esposito said with a sigh. "Still this doesn't change anything that we need to do today and we all need to be focused. Got it" He then said drawing everyone's attention back to the murder board. Everyone nodded that they understood and Castle tried to focus on the job at hand.

"So what is the plan?" Castle asked.

"We talked to the manager last night and Tyson is working at the store in the cellphones department under the alias Derek Storm." Castle squirmed in his chair a little when he heard that but he didn't say anything so Esposito went on. "Tyson works today and he comes in around noon so we will park the van about a block away so Tyson will not be able to see it. Wright you will go into work at 9:30 when the store opens as a new employee and wait for Tyson to show up." Wright nodded that she understood. "Once you have made the I.D let us know via the wire and then squad cars will close off all the streets around the store and we will move in with the swat team and take him down."

"I still don't like it. This whole thing just feels wrong." Castle said when Esposito was finished.

"Well you gave us this lead and unless you have a better plan we have to go with it." Esposito said pointedly. Castle wished that he could come up with one concrete reason not to go ahead with the plan but he couldn't,all he had was his gut feeling that Tyson wouldn't let himself get trapped like this and that wasn't enough.

"Everyone ready?" Esposito asked. Everyone in the room nodded. "Okay let's move out."

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The ride to the drop off point in the van was a somber one,everyone was slightly on edge. Castle choose to ride in the back with Wright he wanted to make sure she was okay. She had insisted on going undercover but at that moment when it came right down to it she seemed nervous and on edge.

"Just stay calm,focus,on the job and remember your training and you will be fine." Castle said trying to help the woman seated next to him.

"Thanks,I guess I don't do a good job hiding how nervous I am." Wright said with a small smile.

"I think everyone feels this way when they go undercover,I know I did. It's like walking a tightrope sure the net is down there but you still don't want to fall." Castle explained.

"So your mother runs an acting school and you live with her?" Wright observed changing the subject.

"Yes and for the record she lives with me." Castle answered and he could see what Wright was doing and he was only too happy to help her take her mind off of the impending mission for a few minutes.

"I see. That alias Tyson is using seemed to bother you,why?" Wright asked. It took Castle a moment to come to grips with the fact that this question even needed to be asked,he had a hard time remembering that there were a lot of people who had never heard of him or his books.

"It's the name of a character who was the focus of a series of book I used to write." Castle replied at last.

"Wow,so he really is coming after you. First he kills a woman just because she goes to your mother's acting school and now he uses the name of one of your characters. I hope I don't screw this up." Wright said as a sober look past over her face.

"I don't see how this changes what you have to do." Castle said turning his head to look at Wright.

"It doesn't but now I know what the stakes are and I can't fail. I would never be able to forgive myself if I screwed up again and then he hurt you somehow. You have been a good friend these past few days." Wright explained not meeting Castle's gaze.

Castle wasn't sure what to say to that but he didn't want this young woman to be carrying that weight on her shoulders as she went undercover. Castle knew first hand how misplaced guilt could mess a person up so he took a stab at coming up with something. "Listen one thing you need to know if you are going to make it on this job is that no plan is perfect. Things are going to go wrong and it's not your fault."

"Yes but if someone gets hurt or killed." Wright interrupted but Castle didn't let her finish.

"The bad guys are the ones who hurt and kill people and they are the only ones responsible. Even if the worst happens Tyson is the one who is to blame not you,Do you understand?" Castle asked sternly.

"Yeah I guess." Wright said at last. "Still it's not easy."

"No it's not." Castle replied. "There are not many people that can do this job,but from what I have seen I think you are one of them."

"Thanks I needed to hear that." Wright with a smile as she looked up at Castle. A moment latter they felt the truck stop and Esposito and Ryan made their way to the back.

"Okay this is where you get off." Ryan said and he walked back and opened the door for Wright.

"Okay." Wright said and moved towards the door.

"Any last minute questions?" Esposito asked.

"No." Wright replied and then she stepped out of the back of the truck.

"Okay then let's go to work." Esposito said and he sat himself down at the bank of computer equitment that was opposite Castle.

"Be careful remember he's smart." Castle said.

"Don't worry so am I." Wright replied and then Ryan closed the van doors and she was gone.

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The first few hours passed without a hitch and were pretty boring. They could hear everything that was going on around Wright and were shocked to find that she wasn't bragging she really knew her stuff when it came to electronics. Wright was very helpful to several customers and this was a relief to all three of the men sitting in the van because it would help sell her cover to everyone in the store including 3XK.

At one point it got so boring that Ryan started showing the baby pictures he had on his phone to Castle and telling him stories about the newest member of the Ryan family. This got a grown from Esposito. It was clear he had seen those photos and heard those same stories a million times by that point and would rather talk about any thing else. This got a smile from Castle as he remembered how he was when Alexis had been younger,now she was all grown up. If he was honest with himself he knew he had always wanted more kids but he had given up on that idea. He now knew that with Beckett out of the picture even if he found someone else by the time they got to the point where they were ready to have kids it would be too late. He couldn't be too upset because he had Alexis and the situation was of his own making still it was another life goal of his that had gone up in smoke.

It was about 12:45 when Wright made a report that caused all three of them to focus their undivided attention on the monitoring devices. "He should be here by now so I am going to check the store and see if I can find him." Wright said calmly.

"Alright all units stand by and be ready to move in." Esposito said into the radio.

A few tense moments latter they had another report. "He doesn't seem to be on the sales floor I am going to check the back room."

A few moments latter they were met with static instead of Wright's voice or any sound. "She's in trouble send the team in!" Castle yelled.

"Not yet the techs warned us that some of the stuff in that store could interfere with the signal let's give her a minute." Esposito responded.

"Damn it her life could be in danger." Castle said glaring at Esposito.

"Yes but if we raid the place and he isn't there we lose Tyson." Esposito said firmly.

"I am not just going to stand by and do nothing." Castle said and before anyone could stop him he through open the doors and ran down the street. He was about half way to the store with Ryan running up behind him when his cellphone rang,it was Wright's number so he answered it but the voice that was on the other end made his blood run cold.

"You broke the rules Castle." it was the cold voice of Jerry Tyson.

"I didn't know you had any." Castle said trying to remain calm he came to a stop just outside the doors of the store.

"You know there are always rules and you weren't supposed to send a little girl in here. You were supposed to come. I am going to take everything from you,now I will do that and another person will die." Tyson sounded angry this time,Castle tried to think of something to say but then the line went dead. At that moment Ryan ran up behind Castle.

"Tyson is here and he knows about Wright." Castle said with out turning to face Ryan. He heard Ryan get on his radio and he dashed into the store as he heard the sounds of half a dozen police cars and a SWAT van pulling up to the curb behind him. He didn't wait for them,be just ran into the store.

"Where is you back room?" Castle bellowed at the first employee he came across,the shocked young woman could only point in the direction of a set of large double doors at the back of the store. Castle dashed back there and flung the doors open.

"Wright!" He yelled "Wright are you here?!"

"I am over here." He heard a weak voice call out. It was Wright's. It took Castle a moment to find her she was back by some large shelves that held TVs. When he did find her he went white as a sheet. Wright was lying on the ground on her back in a pool of her own blood with a knife sticking in her stomach. Castle ran over to her and began to apply pressure to the wound. His first thought was to call for help on his cellphone but he found that he had no signal,so he kept applying pressure. "HELP,WE NEED HELP IN HERE! THERE IS AN OFFICER DOWN!" Castle kept yelling and as he looked down at Wright who seemed about to pass out he notices some smaller wounds on her arms,so he knew she had not gone down without a fight.

"I am sorry,so sorry." Wright kept repeating weakly over and over again.

"You have nothing to be sorry for,you are going to be okay but I need you to hang in there." Castle said and he could see she was fighting to stay awake.

At last after what seemed like hours Ryan and Esposito arrived with the medics. They then forced Castle to step away and he could only stand by and watch as they removed the knife and got her stable enough to move. At last they wheeled her out and Ryan and Esposito followed them. Castle just stood in that back room looking at the puddle of blood. Ryan and Esposito finally came back for him.

"Well it looks like Tyson got away,we can't find him." Esposito reported this didn't get a reaction from Castle he was looking at his blood strained hands and clothes at that moment. Ryan decided to try and bring him out of it.

"Come on Castle we are going to to follow them to the hospital." The Irish man said sadly.

"Okay." Was all Castle could bring himself to say.

"Don't worry she will be..." Esposito started but Castle interrupted him "Okay?!" Castle asked glaring at him. "Don't feed me that line we both know that she is hurt bad and that we have no way of knowing if she will make it."

"Yeah you are right but we have to hang onto hope." Esposito said and they made their way out of the back room.

"What hope?" Castle demanded. "Wright is down and now Tyson is gone and we have no leads,what Hope?!"

**Well that is chapter 6 sorry about the wait but I just can't get this stupid computer working right. Any way let me know what you thought with your reviews and as always thanks for reading.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The drive to the hospital in the squad car was a frantic one. The siren was blaring the whole time and Ryan was driving as fast as he safely could in the New York city traffic. Castle had to handle calls from both Alexis and Martha while this was going on. The local news stations had picked up on the fact that an officer was down in some sort of operation,they didn't have any real details but that didn't stop them from reporting on it. Castle had to assure both women that he was in perfect health and unharmed in any way. There were reports of sightings of Tyson coming in over the radio the whole time they were driving but none of them seemed to pan out. At the same time there was no word on Wright's condition. Every thing was happening too fast and too slowly at the same time.

Finally they pulled into the parking structure beside the hospital. The parking structure was dark and that only made things seem worse as they made their way outside. When they got outside and made a dash for the entrance of the hospital they noticed that it had started to rain,this did nothing to improve anyone's mood. Still the darkness suited the day,everything that could go wrong had gone wrong. It was as if the whole world had turned against the team and decided to play with them just for kicks.

Once they were inside the hospital Ryan and Esposito showed their badges to a nurse and they were led to a small waiting room. All they were told was that Wright was "in surgery". The waiting room was like every other waiting room in every other hospital in the world,clean white floors and walls,cheap chairs that didn't have much in the way of padding on them,and an old tv blaring the news at them. The first thing Esposito did when they were left alone was to find the mute button and silence the television,the last thing they needed at that moment was the noise of other people's problems. Ryan and Castle sat down in two of the chairs stunned,Esposito was pacing back and forth in front of the door.

After a few minutes Ryan leaned over to Castle and spoke to him. "You know you really should go get yourself cleaned up."

"Huh." Castle replied stunned,he was being brought out of some gloomy thoughts. Castle then looked at his hands and saw what Ryan meant. Castle's hands were covered in Wright's blood and as a result his shirt and pants had become stained too. Castle was still in a state of shock but he slowly stood up and made his way to the restroom.

The restroom was empty and Castle was grateful for that,the last thing he wanted to do was have to explain his blood stained hands to a stranger. He washed his hands and face and as he did so he was left alone with his own gloomy thoughts. "_What is it with me? Why do I always seem to get people hurt? Should I just give up?" _ He couldn't come up with an answer to any of these questions and and after a while he noticed he had been scrubbing his hands for several minutes and there was no longer any blood on them. Castle sighed to himself and then forced himself to leave the restroom and make his way back to the waiting room.

When Castle reentered the waiting room he heard a raised voice and saw that there were two more people in the room and they seemed to be talking to Ryan and Esposito,or rather one of them seemed to be yelling at Esposito. The one doing the yelling was a woman who looked to be in her mid fifties. She was wearing jeans and sweat shirt. She was about five and a half feet tall. Her dark brown hair seemed to be going gray and she was the one doing the yelling. Beside her stood an older man who looked to be in his late fifties who was wearing a police uniform. He had some wrinkles on his face,his hair had gone pure white,he had a growing bald spot on the back of his head and he stood just over six feet tall. Neither of the new comers turned when Castle entered the waiting room. "_These must be Wright's __parents." _ Castle thought to himself. As Castle got closer he could hear what the clearly upset woman was saying.

"Just where were you any way,why weren't you backing her up?!" The angry woman demanded.

"Esposito could only mutter an "I'm sorry. Something went wrong." so quietly it was almost under his breath over and over. At last the man pulled the woman aside and sat her down in a chair on the other side of the room and talked to her. The woman then started crying and he seemed to be comforting her.

Castle walked over to Esposito,for the first time since Castle had known the detective he looked defeated. "It's not your fault you know that right?" Castle said looking at his friend.

"Oh yes it is!" Esposito shot back. "She was part of my team and it was my job to keep her safe. I was in charge so it was my fault. I'm sorry I should have listen to you and rushed the place the moment we lost the single." Esposito seemed angry that Castle had even suggested that it wasn't his fault.

"Hey we all know things go wrong,there is no way to know that we would have been in time. It really isn't your fault." Ryan said trying to cheer his old friend and partner up.

"No whoever is in charge is responsible for the lives of everyone involved in the operation and that was me,so it is my fault." Esposito said firmly looking up at his friends. "Let's face it I am just not cut out to lead a team,I blew it."

"Now wait just a minute you're as ready as anyone to lead this team,something went wrong." Ryan protested.

"Really?! Because I don't remember Beckett ever losing a member of this team when she was in charge!" Esposito shot back.

"We haven't lost her yet,and we are not going to lose her." Castle said firmly. "Beckett would be the first to tell you this is no one's fault but Tyson's. Wright knew the risks and she went in there any way because we need to stop this monster once and for all."

"He is right. Please don't mind my wife,she is upset." They all turned around to see that it was the older officer talking. His wife seemed to have calmed down and he was now standing off to the side of the group. His voice was gentle but firm.

"But your daughter?" Esposito said.

"This man is right." He said motioning to Castle. "She knew the risks when she became a cop. Look kid I have been a cop for thirty-seven years and the one thing I have learned is that no matter how hard you try to avoid it sometimes things go wrong and cops get hurt. It's part of the job and there is no one to blame but the dirt bags who hurt people. If you want to help my daughter you will catch this scum before he hurts anyone else."

"Okay,thanks office Wright." Esposito said pulling himself together.

"Don't mention it kid." The man said then he turned to Castle. "I know detectives Ryan and Esposito are here because my daughter talked about them in a phone call but I am afraid she didn't mention you,Detective...?" He asked.

"I am not a detective,I am a writer." Castle responded.

"I am afraid I don't understand,you let a news paper reporter work the case with you and I assume he was on the scene since he has my daughter's blood on his clothes." Officer Wright said turning to Esposito clearly he was confused.

"I am not that type of writer. I'm a novelist." Castle explained. "I was brought in to consult on this case because I have dealt with Tyson before."

"I see,so 3XK is the one who did this." officer Wright said thoughtfully. "That means you must be Richard Castle,the mystery writer."

"Yeah I am. You seem very well informed." Castle replied he was expecting to have to explain things but clearly this man heard things.

"Well when you have been on the force as long as I have you tend to know what is going on. I had no idea Susan was working a 3XK case. She didn't tell me and last I heard he was dead." Officer Wright said shocked. The he held out his hand and added "Sorry I know your name but you don't know mine,Ed Wright and that is my wife Jane over there."

Castle took the hand and shook it. "Sorry we had to meet like this. Your daughter's a good cop." He said with a sigh.

"Well I'd be lying if I said I wasn't upset but we Wrights know the risk when we put on the uniform but that has never stopped us before." Ed replied.

"Yeah,I can't imagine what you are going through I have a daughter myself. If there is anything I can do for you please let me know." Castle said.

"Thank you. " Ed replied. Then before they could continue talking a female doctor with red hair who looked to be in her mid thirties and was about five eight entered the room. Jane Wright got up and stood beside her husband,joining the group as the doctor made her way over to them.

"Family of Susan Wright?" The doctor asked looking up from the chart she was holding in her left hand.

"I am her father and this is my wife and these three men work with my daughter at the NYPD,anything you have to say to us you can say in front of them." Ed explained quickly,clearly he wanted this woman to get to the point.

"Well I am . I'm your daughter's surgeon I am sorry I couldn't update you sooner but we had to get her into surgery as quickly as possible."

"Is she that bad?" Jane Wright asked fear showing in her voice.

"Well she would be a lot worse if someone had not put pressure on the wound but with any stab wound of this kind time is critical. Luckily we got to her in time and she should fully recover as long as there are no complications." explained.

"What kind of complications are we talking about,will she be able to return to work?" Esposito asked.

"Well first I should explain that the main complication with this type of of stab wound is..." began but she was then interrupted by Ed smith. "Internal bleeding which can be hard to find." The older man said and then explained. "This isn't the first time I have seen someone stabbed,it's just the first time it has been one of my kids."

"Yes exactly." continued. "Also the knife nicked her small intestines and while we think we sewed everything up that increases the risk. Still she seems to be doing well and if all goes as well as it has so far she should be able to return to work in a few months."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they heard this news.

"When can we see her?" Jane Wright asked.

"She is being moved into a room now as soon as we have her settled and stable you should be able to visit her but she may not wake up for some time." explained.

"Okay,thank you ." Ed Wright said and it was as if at least part of the weight that had been on his shoulders had been lifted.

"Don't mention it. Do you have any other question?" asked.

Everyone shook their heads no.

"Okay then if you will excuse me I have work to do. It was nice meeting you and I hope everything goes well." and with that turned and walked out of the waiting room.

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It was about half an hour latter when visitor were allowed into Wright's room. The team stayed back while her parents went in. They were in there for about four hours when Ed Wright was called asking if he could come back into work. They were short handed at his precinct. Being a practical man and seeing that there was nothing else he could do at the hospital at that moment he left but Jane Wright stayed behind. The team then entered and sat with her. No one said much there still seemed to be some tension in the air left over from Jane's outburst at Esposito. Suddenly around eight P.M Wright began to stir. A nurse came in and confirmed she was waking up. The nurse then got a doctor and a few minutes latter Wright was groggy but awake. The team decided to leave the room and give her some time with her mother. It was as they were leaving the room that Esposito got a call on his cellphone and he walked away from Castle and Ryan in order to take it.

"So she's awake that is good." Ryan said not being able to think of anything else to say.

"Yeah." Castle said sounding distracted.

"What is it?" Ryan asked.

"I don't know." Castle admitted and exhaustion was starting to show in his speech and the way he was carrying himself. "Something is just off about this whole case."

"Like what?" Ryan asked concerned.

"I don't know,I can't put my finger on it but it's just off." Castle said weakly. "Still I have a feeling that once I figure out what it is we will have the key to solving this whole case."

"Well then I hope you figure it out soon." Ryan said.

"So do I." Castle replied with a sigh.

It was then that the doctor came out of Wright's room and informed them that she seemed to be fine and it was okay for them to visit her for a short period but he didn't want them asking her any questions about the attack at that moment. He wanted them to wait until she had gotten some more rest for that. The two men agreed that they would not bring up the attack when they talked to her.

It was then that Esposito returned looking frustrated. "That was Gates." He explained. "It seems she is taking a lot of heat over this and the higher ups want this taken care of quickly."

"They think we don't?" Ryan asked shocked. "Wright is one of us and this is personal for Castle but we don't have any leads right now!"

"I know I tried to explain that but Gates said if we don't come back in and start working the case she will have to hand it over to another team,so we have to go." Esposito explained.

"Okay then let's get going." Ryan replied and he and Esposito turned and walked down the hallway. They then noticed Castle wasn't with them and turned to face him. Hey,you coming Castle?" Esposito asked.

"If it's all the same to you guys I think I will stick around a little while and wait to see if Wright wants to talk,but I'll be in tomorrow morning." Castle replied.

"Okay see you then." Esposito said and with that and wave from Ryan the two men left.

Castle didn't want to intrude on Wright or her mother so he just waited outside the room. While he waited he called Alexis and Martha and gave them updates letting them know that he wouldn't be home until late and not to wait up for him.

A few minutes after the call ended Jane Wright came out of the hospital room. "She wants to talk to you or any other members of her team. Where are detectives Ryan and Esposito?" The older woman asked.

"They had to go so I guess she will just have to settle for me." Castle said with a weak smile.

"Okay then I am going to go call my husband and get a cup of coffee and maybe wash my face. Just don't take too long in there,the doctor says she needs rest." Jane Wright said. Castle nodded that he understood and then she walked away down the hall. Castle then took a deep breath to prepare himself and entered the room.

The room was your typical hospital room,there was nothing special about it. Wright was laying in an elevated position on her bed with all sorts of tubes and monitoring devices hooked up to her. Castle wasn't sure what to say. The only other time he had to deal with a hurt cop was when Beckett had been shot and even then he had not really seen her for months after the event and if Wright had proven anything in the past few days it was that she was not Beckett. Thankfully Wright broke the ice.

"I must be some kind of idiot." She said with a small smile. "All that training and two years in uniform having to deal with armed suspects and the first time I come across one as a detective I try to block his knife with my gut."

"Well look at it this way,now that this has happened what else can go wrong? It should be smooth sailing from here on out." Castle said taking the chair on her right hand side.

"Unless I am just cursed." Wright said not meeting Castle's gaze.

"Not a chance." Castle said. "Someone taught me that curses aren't real,you'll be fine."

Wright then looked up at Castle. "Looks like I owe you a new shirt." She observed looking at the blood stains on Castle's shirt.

"Forget it this just some old thing I found in the closest. Besides I don't think you could afford it on a cop salary." Castle replied.

"You're right about that." Wright said with a small laugh and then winced slightly.

"Are you okay,do you need me to get a nurse." Castle asked concerned.

"No,I'm fine." Wright said. "It's just a little pain besides there is a reason I asked you to come in here."

"Oh and here I thought you just missed me." Castle said with mock disapointment.

"Look the meds are making me groggy and I don't know when I will drift off again so I want to make this quick. I had a thought about the case." Wright began to explain and she let out a yawn after she finished.

"You shouldn't be thinking about the case,the doctors said you shouldn't be putting stress on yourself." Castle said gravely the young woman may have been a cop but she was also not that much older then Alexis and Castle felt responsible for her.

"I know but please just listen to me I really want to get this guy." Wright protested.

"Okay." Castle said with a sigh.

"Listen I read up on the other cases and from what I can tell Tyson has never cared what order the bodies of his victims were found. He just likes to kill,he has never bothered with hiding them or dropping them somewhere they didn't belong almost two weeks after he killed." Wright explained.

"Yeah you are right,something has felt off about this whole case from the word go and you just put you finger on it Wright!" Castle said excitedly.

"Yeah why did he bother keeping the first victim and then dumping her in a bad neighborhood so long after he killed her,it's not his M.O?" Wright asked.

"Unless the first victim is linked to him somehow and she will lead us to him. She is the key to solving this case." Castle said standing up.

"Exactly we need to look into her background,that is how we will find 3XK." Wright said and she was clearly getting as excited as Castle was.

"Wright you are great at your job and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You manage to crack case from your hospital bed." Castle said and he gave he a hug. "If you will excuse me I need to go join Ryan and Esposito at the precinct."

"Go that's why I called you in so we can get him before he kills again." Wright said.

"So you will be coming back to work when you recover?" Castle asked.

"I am not letting someone like Tyson chase me away from my job and besides you said I was great." Wright said with a smile.

"Yeah but I have been known to say crazy things." Castle responded.

"Well go see if you can catch Tyson and then we will see how crazy you are." Wright shot back.

"Okay,take care." Castle said.

"You too." Wright replied and with that Castle left the hospital room. He passed Jane Wright on his way down the hall. "Don't worry about Susan." He said to her. "I have a feeling she is going to be just fine." Castle didn't wait for her to reply he just raced down the hall. Thanks to Wright they had a lead and he didn't want to waste any time following it up.

**Okay I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I did some research and I hope I got the medical stuff right,if I didn't let me know what I got wrong in your reviews so I can correct it. Any way thanks for your support and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I just wish my computer wasn't giving me so many problems so I could post them fast. You people have all been so great and you deserve more frequent updates but I am saving up for a new computer so here is hoping they will come soon. Any way thanks for all your support and I really hope this chapter was worth the wait.**


	8. I am so sorry

**I am so sorry because all of you have been so supportive and I am leaving you out on a limb but right now jobs are scarce where I live so I have no income and my computer doesn't work at all. The best I can get is that being able to go online for a few minutes every time I try to write my computer crashes and I lose everything. I am so sorry you have all been such great readers and your reviews have helped so much but I have no idea when I will get a working computer so I am going to have to call it quits. I just lost eight chapters and two novels I was working on. I can't repair my computer and I most likely will not be able to get one that works for a year or more so this is it for all of my stories. If anyone wants to continue any of my stories or use any of my characters or plots feel free to PM me and I will hand over my past chapters and any notes I have on where the stories were going if you want them. Thanks again for all of your support and I am so sorry but my awful luck of the past few years has left you all hanging. **

**You have all been so great,thanks a bunch you really helped me improve as a writer and I loved reading all of your reviews.**


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Esposito and Ryan listened as Castle explained Wright's idea to them,both men were insanely tired but they both wanted a break in the case so they paid careful attention to everything their old friend had to say. Castle for the moment had become the "nine year old on a sugar rush" again and they both knew that meant he was either playing with them or he was onto something. No one would be cruel enough to play games with two men who were as tired as they were at that moment so they decided he had to be onto something.

"Well it makes sense and it is a lead. We were going to start looking into her background tomorrow any way." Ryan says at last and then he let out a loud yawn.

"This isn't going to be easy,we will have to did deep. Tyson will have tried to cover up any connection." Esposito pointed out and then added on a more positive note. "But at least it is some sort of lead even if it isn't solid."

"So you haven't found anything else?" Castle asked despite the fact that he was sure he already knew the answer.

"No,it looks like he got out with the crowd and was in the wind before we could stop him." Esposito answered dejectedly.

"I just can't figure out how he got past our blockades,we had all the streets blocked off." Ryan said and frustration was showing in his voice.

"I'm an idiot." Castle said as he slapped his forehead with his right hand.

"What,did you figure out how he got away?" Ryan asked looking up from the paper work he filling out on his desk.

"All of the building in the area were two stories or larger,did any of them have fire escapes?" Castle asked.

"Yeah a few." Ryan responded suddenly getting where Castle was going.

"And we didn't have any choppers in the area and we didn't have enough men to put one on every roof." Esposito said finishing the thought.

"He just had to get onto one of those roofs and move from building to building until he got past the blocked off streets." Castle continued.

"He would have to be in really good shape to do that." Ryan pointed out.

"If anyone could do it Tyson could. Just look at how easily he got the drop on Wright." Castle replied and then added. "Speaking of that was awfully good timing when her bug went out,any idea how he did it?"

"Yeah CSU found a bunch of radio single jammers set up in the that back room,they were small so we are guessing no one else who worked there noticed them." Ryan reported and he handed Castle a crime scene photo of one of the small jammers sitting on a shelf next to some clearance TVs.

"That still doesn't explain how he knew to set them up in the first place." Esposito said. "How could he have known that a detective with a wire would even be there?"

"That's easy,he's got someone watching us now." Castle said gravely and Esposito and Ryan opened their mouths to object but Castle continued. "It's the only way he could have gotten onto Wright so quickly and been ready for her." No one said anything for a few moments after this and then Esposito spoke,his voice was grim but determined.

"We need to look at security footage for this building for the past few days see if the same bystander turns up more then once."

"That is going to be a job and a half,we also have to go through all the tapes for the past few week from the electronics store for footage of Tyson." Ryan said shaking his head.

"I don't think we have a choice guys." Castle said standing up and stretching. "If there is one thing Beckett taught me it's that you have to follow every lead."

"Yeah it's just going to be a lot of slow work while Tyson is running around free to kill again." Ryan said not bothering to look up from his paperwork,there was still a lot to get through after what had happened that day.

"I wouldn't worry about that." Castle said sitting down and a dead expression passed over his face and when he spoke it was with the voice of a marked and hunted man. "He is mad at me so whatever his next move is I think it will be directly targeted at me and not some random bystander."

"Unless he goes after some random person as a way of getting under your skin." Esposito interjected.

"No,he said he was going to punish me and take everything from me so that means he is coming after me or my family next." Castle said with a depressed sigh.

"You should go home and spend some time with them,they must be worried sick." Ryan said looking up from his paperwork at last.

"I'd rather catch Tyson so I know they are safe." Castle replied.

"You should both head home and see your families." Esposito said in his best boss voice. He wasn't that good at being the no nonsense boss who forced people to do things for their own good but that didn't stop him from trying from time to time. Both men looked up at him and he explained. "Look most of the background stuff is going to have to wait until tomorrow when we are able to talk to people in Jenifer Alan's building and people in your mother's acting class any way so you may as well head home. It's been a long day."

"Alright see you tomorrow Bro." Ryan said standing up and then he headed for the elevator.

It took a moment for Castle to process everything Esposito had said but after a minute or so he forced himself to stand up and without saying a word began to walk slowly out of the the bullpen.

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Castle was mobbed by two worried and somewhat angry redheads the instant he walked through the door and into his loft. At first he thought he might need the help of the police officers who were assigned to the loft in order to make it out alive but fortunately he came up with an exit strategy.

"It's not my blood. Look I will tell you all about it but I need to take a shower and change my clothes first." Castle said. This didn't seem to make either woman happy,especially Alexis who seemed to be fighting back a few worried tears but they did back off and let him make his way to his bed room. Castle then stripped down to his boxer but before he could bring himself to take a shower he had to collapse on his bed and let the day's events sink in. It had bee a long,hard,tiring day and he hadn't had time to let the full weight of what had happened hit him. Castle just lay there for the longest time in the quiet thinking. His mind wondered from 3XK,to Wright,to the fact that Alexis and his mother could be in danger,and then back again. It went on and on like that in a loop,he felt so tired at that moment and that fact was not helping anything. The next thing Castle knew the first rays of morning sunlight were peaking through the bedroom window and into his eyes,had he fallen asleep? He must have fallen asleep,he looked over at the bed side clock and it read seven o three A.M. He couldn't remember the last time he had been tired enough to just fall asleep like that. Still he felt more clear headed and as ready as he could to face the day ahead.

After Castle showered he took a look at himself in the bathroom mirror while he brushed his teeth,he had always hated what he looked like with a beard and in truth the only reason he had grown one was that he had been too depressed to shave but at that moment he was gaining a new lease on life so he decided that it was time to shave it off. Castle then decided that today he wouldn't make it easy for Tyson,he would exercise in his room. He didn't want to let fear rule his life but the events of the past day had shaken him and given what Tyson had said he didn't see any point in temping fate. Plus he was sure his leaving the loft like that would just worry Martha and Alexis and given that they were putting up with police protection to make him feel better he figured that not giving Tyson an easy target was the least he could do,plus if he didn't go for a run it would give him a chance to talk to Martha and Alexis before he left for work.

"Work." that was a strange way to think of it and now that he did think about it since when had he become "that guy",The guy that worked a job he had to leave home for every day? He wasn't getting paid and he didn't have to show up but at that moment he felt compelled to and it wasn't because of Tyson. He had to admit he found working as a cop a lot more fulfilling then writing,he didn't really have anything to write about any more any way did he? He had been on the fence but as he was pushing himself to do his sit ups he decided once and for all he was going back to the 12th full time. He didn't know how he was going to get Gates to let him back in at that moment but he did know that he was finished as a writer and climbing back to the top just didn't interest him,he was going to devote himself full time to helping victims get justice as best he could. Finally the last piece he had been looking for had fallen into place,he had a purpose in life and it had nothing to do with Beckett,that part of his life was over,the rest was ahead of him and he was going to make good,he didn't want or need anyone's help he knew how to do this job well now and he was going to do it. Richard Castle was back and he was going to spend the rest of his life doing what he loved and nothing,not Gates,Beckett running away,and least of all Tyson were going to be able to stop him. Castle decided that this was just one more thing he had to talk to his mother and Alexis about before heading in. He also needed to get his mother to come in and talk to Ryan and Esposito about Jenifer,so far she was the only person in New York that they knew for sure had any solid information about the young woman. Castle finished exercising,got dressed,and then headed out into the main living area of the loft read to have a long talk with both his mother and daughter.

Castle walked out of his room a few minutes later and found the two woman at the kitchen counter having breakfast.

"Sorry about last night,I had some thinking to do." Castle said as he took a seat at the counter. "Now I need to talk to both of you." Castle then went on to describe in detail the events of the past few days and the decision he had made the night before when he finished he just waited for someone to say something. Alexis was the first to speak and when she did it was quiet and there was a sign of worry in her voice.

"So you are going back for good then,even after everything that has happened?" the Young redhead said.

"Well Tyson would be coming after me no matter what so I don't think I have a choice with this case,but yes when it is done I am going back." Castle explained calmly.

"What about your books,Richard?" Martha asked.

Castle let out a sigh before answering this question. "Honestly I think I have written every story I have to tell,I just don't have anything else to put down on paper."

"So that's it you are just going to go out and get yourself killed because Beckett isn't here for you to write about any more?" Alexis piped in and she sounded almost angry.

"This has nothing to do with Beckett." Castle kept his voice calm but he wasn't sure how he could explain to his daughter why he was giving up the job he had done all his life for one that would put him in danger. "I just don't find writing about fake murders when I could be helping to stop real ones all that rewarding." This answer didn't seem to satisfy Alexis so he tried to explain better. "Look I know you have been through a lot and I am sorry I let you feel the fallout when things got bad with Beckett and I know that before I kept going back because of her."

"Then why are you going back now,she isn't there any more?!" Alexis demanded and it seemed that she was almost on the point of tears.

"Because I got things backwards before." Castle tried to explain looking his daughter in the eyes. "I thought the job was there to bring me to Beckett but really Beckett was there to get me to a job. All my life I have been looking for something I was good at and now I have found it and it helps people. When I help solve a case there is always the chance that I have helped in some small way to save a life and I finally figured out that doing that is what I really want to do. I don't plan on seeing Beckett ever again but I know I have to do this from now on."

"I guess I can understand that,but I don't have to like the fact that you are in danger." Alexis said at last calming down.

"I am not asking you to but I am working with good people and most people who do this job come home safe and sound every day. I know this isn't what you thought I would be doing with my life and if you ask me too I will stop,but it does help people and it is what I want to do."

It took Alexis a moment to answer but when she did she had a small smile on her face. "Okay as long as this isn't about Beckett or you being depressed I can handle it."

"Thank you,I promise it isn't." Castle said and then he hugged his daughter.

"I am proud of you dad,I may get upset if you get hurt but I will try not to forget that I am proud of you for helping others." Alexis said as she returned the hug.

"Thanks pumpkin." Was all Castle said as he released his grip on his daughter. Castle then stood up,cleared his throat,and got down to business. "Mother if you are up to it I am going to need you to come into the precinct with me today." He said in a clear voice that didn't betray any of the emotional upset he had been in just a few moments before.

"Why do you need me to come in?" Martha asked her son puzzled.

"Because we haven't found anyone else in New York who knew Jenifer yet so we need you to tell us what you know about her." Castle explained.

"Oh yes, of course Richard. Just give me about twenty minutes and I will be ready." The older woman said and she then exited the kitchen and headed up the stairs to her room to get ready.

"So you really are okay with this?" Castle asked turning to Alexis. He knew she had just said she was but he wanted to be sure,he didn't want to turn her into nervous depressed wreck just because she had said what she thought he wanted to hear.

"Yes I really am." Alexis replied. "I was worried that you going out and getting yourself hurt or killed was your way of trying to prove something to Beckett but now that you have explained everything I'm okay with it. Just be careful,okay?"

"Scout's honor." Castle replied.

"You were never a boyscout." Alexis shot back.

"True,but I did get lost on a hike in the woods once."

"Close enough I guess." Alexis said with a smile.

"You going to be okay alone here?" Castle asked concerned.

"Yeah I will be fine there are cops here and I have some school work to catch up on. You and Grams go do what you need to do. Go save the world." Alexis said and then she kissed her father on the cheek and went off in the direction of her room.

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The questioning went along pleasantly enough,Esposito asked most of the questions since Ryan was busy looking at security footage. Martha was helpful but there was only so much she could tell them. She had an address and could tell them that Jenifer was very dedicated to the craft of acting and was very good at playing death scenes but other then that she didn't have a whole lot to say. It seemed that Jenifer kept things to herself and while she would go on and on excitedly about acting she didn't talk about her personal life while at class. The true interest in acting had been enough to earn her Martha's friendship but it wasn't very helpful to the police. Still when all was said and done and Martha left they did have an address out of it so Esposito and Castle found themselves on the way to check it out some time around ten in the morning. Ryan was left with his security tapes and that got a grumble from him. Castle took some copies of the DvDs with him in the car to look at on his laptop and try to help Ryan out but that did little to brighten the Irishman's outlook on the day he had ahead of him.

The apartment building was in a section of town that was not the best but also was not the worst,in fact if one word could be used to describe the apartment building and it's whole neighborhood it would be average. Everything about the place was average in every way.

Castle and Esposito walked into the lobby and they saw an older man pushing a large garbage can towards the door. He was in working clothes who stood about five and a half feet tall,he was mostly bald with some pure white hair still hanging onto the edges of his scalp,and his back had a slight hump.

"Excuse me do you work here?" Esposito asked the man as he walked up to him.

"Who wants to know?" The old man shot back not even bothering to look up.

"Detective Esposito NYPD." Esposito said holding out his I.D but the man didn't stop pushing the garbage can or even look up at Esposito or the I.D. "Does this woman live here?" Esposito continues as he holds out a picture of Jenifer. This gets the old man's attention and he stops pushing the trash can and looks up at the picture.

"Yeah I'm the super and I can tell you she lives on the third floor but I haven't seen her lately,still she is paid up till the end of the month so what do I care." The old man says a moment later while making it clear that they are intruding and there are a lot of things he would rather be doing then answering a lot of questions from Castle and Esposito. "What did she do that has you coming around here?"

"She was murdered almost two weeks ago." Esposito replied.

"Guess that explains why I haven't seen her around." The old man said dryly not showing any concern or emotion of any kind. "I can let you into the room if you want." Castle suspected that the old man was not trying to be helpful as much as he was trying to get rid of them so he could get back to work,he didn't know the guy's story but he took an instant dislike to anyone who could hear that fellow member of the human race had been murdered and not have any kind of reaction to it.

"In a minute first what is your name,sir?" Epsosito asked.

"Fred Thomson." The man answered gruffly,his mood was not improving.

"Alright is there anything you can tell us about ?" Esposito asked.

"Not much other then the fact that she moved in about eleven months ago and always paid her rent on time,I mind my own business." Thomson answered and then added rather tersely. "Look do you want me to let you into the room or not,I have a lot of work to do."

That was the last straw and it caused Castle to snap,he stepped forward into Thomson's face and spoke harshly. "Look a woman was just murdered and we are trying to catch the guy who did it before he kills again,you can take five minutes to answer a few questions!" Castle was just barely holding his rage in check.

"Look pal I didn't see nothing that could help you." Thomson shot back.

"So you did see something that could help us." Castle countered.

All this seemed to do was confuse Thomson who turned to Esposito. "Who is this guy?" He demanded.

"This is Richard Castle,he is working with the department on this case." Esposito explained keeping calm and professional. "We do need you to answer a few questions because we believe may have been stalked and her killer will kill someone else if he is not caught. Anything you can remember about her may help us."

Thomson seemed to soften a bit upon hearing those words and while he wasn't exactly friendly he seemed to have decided to at least try to help for the time being. As Castle and Esposito headed up to the third floor apartment they learned from Thomson that he all he knew about Jenifer Alan was that she was taking some kind of acting class and that she worked at a coffee shop down the street. He couldn't tell them anything about her friends or family and he didn't know if she was dating anyone. They showed him a picture of Tyson but he was pretty sure he had never seen him before in his life. It was none to soon for Thomson when Esposito handed him a card and asked him to call if he remembered anything. Thomson left Castle and Esposito standing in front of the unlocked door of apartment 305 as he went back about his business,the whole murder thing had not seemed to phase him at all.

"Try not to touch anything,CSU will be here in a bit to check for prints. If you are right maybe we will get lucky and Tyson will have left something behind." Esposito said as he pushed the door opened. Castle nodded that he understood and followed his friend into the small apartment.

The apartment was one room with a small bathroom and a decent sized closet. There was a bed,a desk with a laptop on it,a small round table with two chairs,and a dresser sitting next to the bed but Castle's eyes were drawn to the bookcase that was opposite the door. Castle walked over and began studying the books carefully while Esposito seemed more interested in the laptop.

"Well he has been here,the hard drive has been ripped out of the computer." Esposito said walking over to Castle who was looking intently at the spines of the books on the shelf. Castle didn't respond so Esposito continued. "Also I don't think CSU will find anything,the bathroom and the rest of this place is insanely clean. Looks like Tyson cleaned up after himself." Castle still didn't respond so Esposito stepped between him and the book shelf. "Dude is there something wrong?" He asked.

"Does anything about these books strike you as a little odd?" Castle responded with a question still looking at the books and not meeting Esposito's gaze.

"It's a bookcase full of books." Esposito replied simply.

"There are fifty three books on this case and they are all either about the after life or near death experiences. They are all about what happens when or after you die." Castle said thoughtfully as he picked up one of the books and handed it to Esposito.

"Yeah that is kind of creepy." Esposito admitted.

"Tell me about it. It's not normal for a girl in her mid twenties to be so fixated on death." Castle said as he took a look at one of the other books. "Also the ones about near death experiences all seem to be written by people who suffered some form of violent attack. Bombs in war zones,shootings,stabbings,and this woman was nearly killed by a shark." Castle held up the book he was skimming through so Esposito could see the cover. "Either I am crazy or that is not normal."

"You are not crazy,something was up with this woman." Esposito said as he returned the book he was holding to it's place on the shelf.

"I think this tells use something about Jenifer." Castle said taking a breath.

"That she was an Emo kid?" Esposito ventures.

"No,something more that." Castle said and after a moment he began to explain his theory. "I think she lost someone close to her violently,she may or may not have seen it. She has spent her life trying to reconnect with that person and looking for hope,hence the books. Her life feels empty to her so she took to acting because she could lose herself in another person and forget about her life and her lose. I don't know how she got on Tyson's radar or why he got close enough that he had to hide his connection with her but I think all this somehow made her different from his other victims and when we catch him we will find that she was the first one he killed on this spree."

Esposito took a minute to think about this before replying. "That is an interesting theory,but how does it help us catch Tyson?"

"I don't know." Castle admitted. "But it does help us understand him and it is more then we knew this morning so that is something."

"Yeah I guess. I just wish we had found something really useful here,like his home address." Esposito said as he turned and headed to the door.

"Me too,But this is Tyson we are talking about. I don't think we will get that lucky." Castle replied and he turned to follow the detective.

"Well come on we need to question the other people who live here,see if they know anything." Esposito said and with that he and Castle walked out of the apartment closing the door behind them.

Questioning the other tenants turned up exactly zilch. No one was able to add anything that Castle and Esposito didn't already know. The same went for the coffee shop. People said Jenifer was nice and that she was studying acting but other then that they couldn't add much. They didn't know who her friends where or if she had a boyfriend and none of them could remember seeing Tyson. This left both men in a pretty bad mood when they finally finished around two in the after noon. They then decided to use their lunch break to go check in on Wright at the hospital,they drove back to the 12th first to pick up Ryan and then headed over to the hospital. No one said much on the way other and there was a wait to see Wright because the doctor was checking on her,finally they got into the room. The three men made small talk with Wright and her parents for about five minutes before Wright's father led her mother out so that Wright could have some time to talk to her team alone before they had to head back to work.

"So how are you doing?" Esposito asked taking a step closer to Wright.

"I have some pain and I fall asleep every few hours but other then that I feel fine." Wright said and then added. "You know for someone who can't stand corpses I came close to being one so considering that I feel really good,you don't have to worry."

"I'm sorry I let you down. It was my job to keep you safe on that operation and I failed." Esposito said with guilt written all over his face.

"Look let's not do this." Wright pleaded looking up at Esposito. "My whole family are cops and you have been a cop for a long time,we both know sometimes cops get hurt on the job and there is no one to blame but the perps. It isn't your fault and I don't blame you. Let's leave it at that,okay?" Esposito nodded that he understood. In truth he understood in his head but it didn't make him feel much better.

"So any idea when they are going to let you out of here?" Ryan asked changing the subject.

"They say I should be able to go home in a week or so if everything goes alright but they will not know for sure for a while." Wright answered with a weak smile.

"So I guess that means you will be back kicking ass in no time." Ryan observed.

"I'm afraid the doctors are saying it will be a few months before they let me back on the force." Wright said with a hint of frustration creeping into her voice.

"Well don't worry,your desk will be waiting for you when you get out." Esposito reassured her.

"I'm not worried about that." Wright said a few moments later. "I just wanted to help take this guy down and now I am going to have to sit out the rest of this case,plus I am going out of my mind with nothing to do here."

Upon hearing this Castle perked up,he had an idea. "Wait here I few minutes,I'll be right back." He said with a smile and then he dashed out of the room and down to the parking garage. Once he was down there he made his way to the car,this took longer then he thought it would since he found that he couldn't quite remember where he,Ryan,and Esposito had parked,but at last he found the car that he could have sworn was hiding from him on purpose. Once Castle got to the care he opened the front passenger said door and gathered up all the dvds of footage from the precinct and the electronics store that he and Ryan had been looking at all day. Next he opened up his laptop and after deleting his internet history and some of his bookmarks closed it up and grabbed it and it's power cable in his other hand and made his way back into the hospital.

Castle was making his way down the hall to Wright's room with his little surprise when he ran right into and the dvds in his left hand were scattered across the floor.

"Oh I'm sorry ." Smith said as she bent down to help Castle pick up the dvds.

"No,it was my fault. I wasn't watching where I was going." Castle said as he stood up while handed him the last three dvds. "I don't think we were properly introduced yesterday,I'm Rick Castle."

"Julie, Smith." replied. "I know who you are,I have read your books."

"Oh,a fan?" Castle asked.

"Well let's just say your books are better then the magazines they keep in the waiting room." Smith replied playfully.

"Well that has always been my goal in life. To write books that are slightly better then the magazines in a hospital's waiting room." Castle returned.

"Speaking of any idea when your next book is coming out?" Smith asked.

"As soon as I get an idea." Castle admitted suddenly he was having a lot less fun then he had been a few few seconds before,Smith seemed to sense this and she stepped in and changed the subject. "I take it you are here to see detective Wright." She said trying to keep things light.

"Yeah,can you tell me how bad she really is?" Castle asked,this was a fairly heavy topic but he was glad to get off the subject of his writers block since thinking about that lead him to thinking about Beckett and how things had ended with her and he had promised Alexis he would move on and that was what he intended to do,but having people remind him of her didn't help him with that task.

"Well there is good news it looks like she will be alright." Smith began to explain as Castle listened intently,this was the first good news he had had all day. "There was a lot of bleeding but the knife just missed everything vital. Now I can't understate how painful the recovery is going to be or how careful she will have to be in order to avoid complications but she should be able to make a full recovery assuming nothing unexpected goes wrong."

"That's not what I expected." Castle said thoughtfully,suddenly not paying much attention to Smith and instead getting lost in his own thoughts.

"I'll admit I didn't expect it either. It couldn't have gone better if the attacker had been trying to avoid killing her,she was very lucky." Smith replied.

"Yeah lucky." Castle said still lost in his own thoughts. _"Did Tyson leave her alive on purpose,if so why?" _

"Well I need to get back to work,it was nice meeting you ." Smith said and then she turned and went back about her business. The whole conversation had left Castle more then a little confused,not just the information about Wright's wound but the way he had reacted had puzzled Castle. He had always assumed that after Beckett he was done but had he just been flirting with that woman? He hadn't meant to and truth be told he didn't know he was doing it when it happened but it was like some long lost instinct had taken over him and controlled his actions and body language. Then again why did this bother him? He and Beckett were done,what was wrong with moving on and why did he feel bad about it? Castle shrugged and decided to put those problems aside for another day since he knew Ryan and Esposito would have to head back to work soon,so he decided to drop off his present for Wright and then get back to work on the case.

Castle found Ryan and Esposito chatting with Wright when he entered the room and strange as it seemed they were all relaxed and seemed more like a team then they had at any point since Castle had come on board the case. "Hey I got something for you if it's okay with Esposito." Castle said as he walked towards the bed. Esposito looked up at what Castle was carrying and nodded his approval.

"What is it?" Wright asked puzzled. Castle went on to explain about how Ryan was having a hard time going through all the footage from the precinct and the electronics store alone looking for someone who turned up in both places. "So if you are really board I figured you could look through it and see what you could find,an extra pair of eyes never hurts."

"Thanks I am so board and I don't want to let this guy get away. Hand it over." Wright said with a smile and Castle handed her the laptop and the discs.

Esposito then looked at his watch. "Hey I think we need to get back to work guys." He said switching to boss mode. The other two men nodded,they said their goodbys to Wright and then headed out leaving her looking intently at the screen to Castle's laptop.

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When all three men got back to the 12th Ryan and Esposito sat down at Esposito's desk to compare notes and run other what if anything they had learned that day. Castle didn't join them instead he peeked in through the blinds into Captain Gates' office and he let out a sigh when he saw that she seemed to just be doing paper work at that moment. Castle was hoping that she would be busy so he would have a good reason to put off having the conversation he was planing on having,he was not looking forward to it at all. He didn't suppose "Iron" Gates would respond well to the news that he planed on coming back full time and surmised that he had a full blown fight on his hands and he really wasn't in the mood for it. Still he figured it was better to get it out of the way sooner rather then latter and he had better chance of getting Gates to agree when she needed him on a case then when she didn't so he screwed up his courage,took a breath,and knocked on the door to her office. Suddenly Castle felt like a kid who was in trouble at school,he wanted to leave but Gates answered the knock with a "Come in." and it was too late.

"Oh, ." Gates said as Castle entered the room closing the door behind him,he figured there was no reason why anyone else should have to hear Gates' screams of terror when he gave her the news. Gates motioned for Castle to have a seat but he decided he would be able to get through the whole ordeal better if he was standing.

"I wanted to talk to you about something." He said after a moment.

"What is that?" Gates asked giving him nowhere to go with the conversation other then just saying what he wanted.

"It's about after this case is done,The fact is I think I have proven myself around here and I know I am not a cop but I would like to come back and help out on cases again. I wouldn't be shadowing anyone I would just be helping out with cases when I can." Gates didn't seem to scream and Castle took that as a good sigh and continued. "It is up to you and if you say no I will not be going to the Mayor or anything like that I just want to help because I feel useful here."

Gates kept Castle waiting for about thirty seconds of pure hell where he couldn't read her face,Castle guessed that she had used that face to break many a dirty cop in her day,and then she finally replied. "As long as you understand that I am in charge and you follow our rules I don't have any problem with that." She said at last and this took Castle aback,he was expecting to have to fight to come back and he really wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Really?" Castle asked rather weakly.

"Really." Gates replied. "Look I may not have liked the idea of you working cases when I first took over here but I am not an idiot. Now if you repeat what I am about to say you will be out of this place so fast there will be skid marks on the floor because I have a reputation to keep up." Castle nodded that he understood and then Gates continued. "You do a good job on this team. You clearly care about the victims,you see details others miss,and you do keep the team's spirits up with your insanity. However I could use a little less of that in future. What is more the case closer rate does jump up while you are here. I am not just a paper pusher I do care about the job so I am not going to turn down good help when it is offered but remember I am the boss."

"Yes sir." Castle said and then he just stood in place stunned,that was the last thing he had expected Gates to say when he entered the room.

"Is there anything else?" Gates asked.

"Oh sorry." Castle said,it was all he could think to say and then he tried to explain. "I just figured I would have to fight to get back in and this is a bit of a shock."

"Well everything I said was true and plus I figured that given what has happened the past few months we should try to get along better for the sake of our kids." Gates said in what was almost a relaxed and off hand manor.

"Yeah I guess you are right...Wait what?!" Castle injected the last part about kids puzzled him. "What did you mean by that?" he asked.

Now it was Gates' turn to be surprised. "I just meant that given what has happened between my oldest son and your daughter the past few months we should at least try to be friends." Gates said and then she seemed to realize that she had made a huge mistake and back tracked. "Wait Alexis hasn't said anything about this to you has she?" The older woman said.

"Anything about what,what is going on between your oldest son and my daughter?" Castle asked he was now worried and afraid. He had a hunch he knew what she was talking about and the idea filled him with horror.

"If Alexis hasn't said anything then forget I said anything,I am not coming between a father and daughter." Gates said trying to end the conversation and for the first time since he had met her Castle could swear the captain was embarrassed about something.

Suddenly Castle started to put the pieces together. "Wait your oldest son is in college right,He doesn't happen to go to the same college Alexis goes to does he?" Castle asked and his face became white as a sheet.

"As a matter of fact he does,but you didn't hear that from me and I would advise you not to talk to Alexis about anything you may or may not know because of something I may or may not have said." Gates replied suddenly becoming a spokesperson for the C.I.A. "Now will you please leave my office I have work to do."

Castle stepped out of Gates' office in a complete state of shock,nothing could have prepared him for what had just happened in that room. He didn't need a sixteen ton weight to fall on him in order to get the picture. Alexis was dating Gates' son and had been doing so for months. Suddenly the image of himself having to sit across the table from "Iron" Gates and family at Thanksgiving dinner passed in front of his eyes and a cold chill ran down his spine. It was one things to have to deal with Gates at work it was another to have to make nice in his personal life,this just couldn't work. Castle could see only one hope,both Alexis and Gates' son were in college so if he was lucky the relationship would not last.

It was as Castle was trying calm himself down and focus on the case again that his cellphone rang,he picked it up and saw that it was a call from the last person he needed to talk to at that moment,his daughter Alexis.

Castle answered the phone with a sigh but he was still in too much a state of shock to speak so Alexis spoke first. "Hey dad,hows the case going?" Alexis asked cheerfully.

"It's coming fine." Castle said evenly,he knew Gates was right and it would be a mistake to confront her with what he knew so he didn't say anything else because he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Well I just called because I thought I would let you know that you got a package in from Beckett." Alexis said carefully,she clearly didn't want to upset her father.

This jerked Castle out of his grim thoughts,he couldn't think for the life off him what Beckett would be sending to him now. "Are you sure it is from her?" He asked.

"Well it has her name on it and a D.C return address,I guess she must have found some stuff you left at her place while she was moving in and sent it back to you. Any way I put it in you office." Alexis replied clearly trying to keep from upsetting him,she knew her father didn't like thinking about Beckett.

"Yeah I am sure that is it." Castle said and then another worse thought pasted through his mind,he didn't like it but he couldn't remember leaving anything at Beckett's apartment that she would have taken with her when she moved. Castle decided he had to act on his idea even if he he was panicking over nothing. When Castle next spoke he kept his voice calm but urgent. "Alexis I want you to listen to me,I need you and your grandmother to get out of the loft now. Leave the package there and get out."

"Why?" Alexis asked clearly puzzled.

"Never mind just get out now."

"Okay I'll ge..." Alexis began and then Castle heard a sound that made his blood run cold,a loud explosion.

Panic took him over as he yelled into the phone. "Alexis?! ALEXIS!" No reply came and the line went dead.

**Sorry it has taken so long please leave a review and let me know that you thought of this chapter. Thanks for your support.**


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

The car raced to Castle's apartment building as fast as it could go with it siren blaring the whole time,but it was not fast enough for Castle as wave after wave of panic and fear over took him. He spent the whole time trying to get a hold of Alexis or his mother but he couldn't get an answer on either of their phones. All anyone knew was that a bomb of some kind had gone off in Castle's building and it looked like it had blown the loft to pieces. Emergency workers were there but they were not going in until the building had been cleared by the bomb squad and from what Castle could tell from the radio chatter the bomb squad was still on it's way. Castle tried to calm himself but it was no good,if he had lost Alexis he didn't know what he would do other then kill Tyson in the most painful way he could come up with,after that he had no idea what he would do with himself.

The car was stopped about half a block from the loft. Police were trying to hold back a crowd of onlookers and there were about a dozen police cars and other emergency vehicles were parked on the street outside the building but Castle wasn't paying any attention to them as he threw the passenger side door of the car open and made a mad dash for his home. Castle was fixated on the large black cloud that was pouring out of the side of the building,it hung over the street like a giant black demon taunting Castle. The density of the crowd would have stopped most people but Castle pushed his way through,nothing could stop him at that moment,he had to find out if Alexis was alive.

Castle made it to the sidewalk outside the building when he felt something stopping him,he looked down and saw a young blond hared patrolman who was standing in front of him and blocking his path.

"You can't go in there sir it hasn't been cleared by the bomb squad." The young man said.

"MY DAUGHTER IS IN THERE!" Castle yelled at the top of his lung,his face was contorted in a mixture of panic and rage.

"Sir I can't let you in there." The patrolman repeated and then he tried to push Castle back,this was a mistake. In one move Castle clenched his right hand into a fist,reached up and quickly punched the patrolman right on the jaw knocking him to the ground. Castle didn't take time to think about what he had just done he just dashed forward. Castle had just about reached the door when he felt a huge force hit him from behind,he then felt a tremendous weight on his back,and he then then felt himself falling and hitting the concrete sidewalk face first. Castle next felt weight being put on his back and he could look behind himself to confirm it but he was sure there were at least three officers working to restrain him. He then felt his arms being yanked behind his back,he knew this mean that they were about to cuff him,he knew he had to work fast if he was going to get free. No one was going to stop him from getting to Alexis.

Castle quickly used all his strength to push himself up into a crouching position and then he throw his head back as hard as he could,it connected with the head of the officer who was trying to cuff him. Castle then managed to get free of his grip. Castle didn't wast a second while the officers were still surprised he ran the last six inches into the the lobby. The officers were close behind Castle but he had one advantage,he knew the building they had to learn their way around and follow him. The bomb had put the lights out and the lobby was in complete darkness except for the light coming in through the door and windows,Castle didn't need light he knew the building like the back of his hand,he dashed for the stairwell that was on the opposite side of the room from the elevator,he wrenched the door open,and then he ran inside slamming the door behind him.

Castle ran up the stairs three at a time,he didn't take time to think,if he had he would have been worried about the sound of the footsteps of the police coming up behind him,or he would have noticed that he was getting tired but he didn't have time for that,he was too overcome with panic and too determined to get to Alexis to think of anything but his goal. He was short of breath by the time he reached his floor but he wasn't going to let that stop him,he pushed open the door and made his way into the hall.

Castle was met by a thick cloud of smoke that was pouring out of a hole in the wall where his front loft's front door used to be. He chocking on the smoke but he pushed forward past the splinters of wood and metal that used to be the front door and into the loft. He was nearly overcome by the heat,there were fires everywhere and a giant gaping hole in the wall where his study and bedroom used to be.

"Alexis,Mother!" He called out trying to find his way through what had once been his home. "Alexis!" _"Oh god! Everything is destroy,there is no sign of her!" _He thought to himself as he tried to find his way through the wreckage,he was slowly being overcome by the smoke and didn't have much time. Finally he found the kitchen counter that seemed to be mostly intact,he dashed behind it only to see nothing but Alexis' cellphone laying on the floor. "_She isn't here,where is she?!"_ Castle thought to himself it was then that the smoke overcame him and he fell to the floor,he tried to struggle to get up but he couldn't,the last thing he heard before he passed out where what sounded like footsteps entering the loft.

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Susan Wright was only able to keep herself awake for one or two hours at a time still she had quickly become board with TV and instead used the time she was awake to look at the security footage Castle had brought her on his laptop. She scanned each piece of footage carefully but she knew the chances were against her finding anything useful,still it had to be done and she wanted to do something to catch this bastard. Thinking back to what had happened she was sure that the monster had let her live on purpose,most likely so she would have to sit back in a hospital bed and watch on the news as one fresh victim after another turned up all because she didn't do her job and stop him. Well she was not about to let that happen. She kept scanning the security footage of Tyson in the electronics store but so far he had acted like every other employee and there didn't seem to be any clues as to what he was up to or who his partner was.

Still Wright kept scanning. Her mother had tried to convince her to rest and take her mind off of work but Wright could not do that,she had to find this guy and find out what he was up to before he killed again. She looked up to and admired her captain and she agreed with her that they could not let Tyson get victim number five. That was when she saw him,a man about Tyson's age with a limp who came in to the store three days before he seemed to be having a rather heated conversation with Tyson about something besides cellphones. Something about the man made Wright take a closer look at him and No,it could not be! Wright could not believe her eyes,she had to tell someone. She knew the man,not well but she did know him. Suddenly things began to fall into place for Wright and it made sense how 3XK had been ahead of them this whole time. Wright had to call someone,she had to let them know,but would anyone believe her? It seemed too fantastic to be true,Tyson's partner was a cop.

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Castle came to with an oxygen mask on his face and a paramedic hovering over him,it took him a few moments to get his barrings but at last he realized that he was laying on a stretcher in a ambulance. The paramedic tried to keep Castle laying down but Castle forced himself up,he spoke in between taking gulps of oxygen from the mask.

"I have to find out what happened to my daughter." He choked out.

"I'm right here and I'm fine Dad." With those words Castle felt a wave of relief wash over him unlike anything he had ever felt before. He looked in the direction of the voice and saw that Alexis was standing just outside the ambulance doors with her grandmother beside her. Alexis had a few small cuts and bruises on her face but otherwise she seemed to be okay. Before Castle knew what had happened his daughter had run up to him and was hugging him tightly.

"Don't ever do anything like that again! I saw you run in there and I thought I was going to lose you." Alexis said and Castle didn't have to see her face to know that she was fighting back tears. Castle could tell it wasn't just his being in danger that had his daughter upset,it was the whole situation and her life being in danger for the second time in under a year. All Castle could think to do was hold the young redhead close and whisper "I'm sorry. I am so sorry. It's going to be okay." again and again until she calmed down. After a few minutes Alexis pulled away and sniffed and wiped the tears from her face.

"Are you two okay?" Castle finally asked looking from his daughter to his mother who was standing a few feet away outside of the ambulance.

"Well I'm fine but my wardrobe isn't." Martha answered trying to inject a little humor into the situation.

"I was in the kitchen when the bomb went off and then the officers got us both out,so I am fine." Alexis answered.

"Yes but are you okay?" Castle asked concerned.

"I will be." Alexis answered honestly. "Right now I am still shaken so much happened to quickly I was in an ambulance when I saw you dash into the building followed by detectives Ryan and Esposito. I tried to call you to let you know I was okay but both Grams and I lost our cellphones in the rush and Officer Simpson was hurt in the blast and we don't even know if he is okay..." Alexis rambled on clearly becoming upset.

"It's okay,no harm was done. I am just glad you are safe." Castle said trying to calm her down,he was afraid she may have been seconds away from a panic attack. The young woman had been haunted by panic attacks since she had been kidnapped earlier that year. Castle didn't know how to make Alexis feel better,he had now let her down and failed to protect her twice and she had nearly died both times. This time her life was only in danger because he had been doing something he should not have,3XK wouldn't have even met him if he had not been playing cop at the time. He should have walked away when he was offered the James Bond deal,if he had none of this would have happened. Castle blamed and hated himself for putting his daughter in danger with his lack of self control. She was paying the price for his mistake,he had to make this right but he didn't know how. Every time he told Alexis she was going to be okay he knew he was lying and she was smart enough to know it too so he just sat there not saying anything because he couldn't think of anything to say that would not make things worse.

"If you have a moment I would like to talk to you." Castle looked up and saw that the voice belonged to Captain Gates and she didn't look too happy with him,still he thought he detected a touch of concern in her expression. Castle pushed himself up and joined Gates outside the ambulance. He took a look around and he saw that there was no longer smoke coming out of the building so he guessed that the fire was out. This was confirmed a moment latter when he saw part of a CSU team entering the building,He must have been out long enough for the fire to be put out,the building to be cleared by the bomb squad,and for CSU to begin their investigation. Castle then returned his attention to the woman standing in front of him,at the moment the expression on her face reminded him of one of his teachers when he was at school,one of the teachers he was in big trouble with.

"Our agreement was that you could continue working cases as long as you followed the rules like any of my detectives so could you please explain to me what part of that you think gives you the right to assault police officers and then go charging into an active crime scene putting both yourself and others at risk." Gates said sternly.

"Sorry sir,I know I panicked and screwed up." Castle answered his tone not betraying any emotion,the truth was he could not care less how much trouble he was in,Alexis and his mother were safe for the moment and that was all he cared about.

"You are damn right you screwed up,do you know how much trouble I had to go to just to keep charges from being pressed against you and detectives Ryan and Esposito were put in danger when they had to pull you out of there." Gates continued still fuming,Castle knew she had a point but he was just too tired too care.

"Look I know and I am sorry. I was so worried about Alexis I couldn't think,I don't know what else to say." Castle responded a moment later. Gates was about to respond when they were interrupted by a tune Castle couldn't quite place at first,it took him a second to remember that it was the theme tune from the Niki Heat movie,he was then surprised to see Gates pull out her cellphone. "_So Iron Gates liked the movie enough to use it's theme tune as her ring tone,do I have a closet fan?" _Castle thought to himself,the day had just been full of surprises. Castle couldn't tell what Gates was doing all he knew for sure was that he heard her tell someone to "calm down" and then a moment latter he was distracted by Ryan and Esposito walking up to him.

"Hey bro do us a favor if you are going to make us rescue your ass from the top floor of burning buildings could you hit the gym once in a while." Esposito joked as they made their way over to Castle.

"Or you could at least check to make sure the person you are running in to save isn't already outside of the building before you go in to play hero." Ryan added.

"Hey thanks for coming after me,sorry you had to do it." Castle said looking up at them,it seemed like he should have something else to say to the friends who had just saved his life but at that moment he honestly couldn't think of anything else to say.

"It's okay,we're a team remember." Esposito said.

"I know but Gates is right,i should have known better. I could have gotten us all killed." Castle replied glumly.

"We understand,you had to go in after Alexis. Besides it's not like you haven't saved us before. Don't beat yourself up." Ryan said giving Castle pat on the shoulder. Castle was about to reply when he got distracted,suddenly Gates called Alexis over and handed her the cellphone. Alexis' face turned slightly red but she took the phone and then stepped back a few feet from everyone else. Gates then began talking with an officer who had walked up to her. Castle guessed that the person on the phone must have been Gates' oldest son Fredrick and he decided he needed to take his mind off of the fact that his daughter was dating Gates' son so he turned back to Ryan and Esposito and decided to ask them about the case.

"So do we know anything yet?" Castle asked trying to be all business.

"Well CSU thinks that the bomb may have been remote detonated but that is just a guess for know." Ryan answered.

"So Tyson was here,somewhere watching us." Castle observed. "Has anyone tried to find him?"

"Gates had people spread out and ask questions and a few people said they thought they saw someone who looked like him across the street,but it looks like he is in the wind now." Esposito answered grimly.

"So we still have to find him." Castle said with a sigh looking at the ground.

"We'll find him,he isn't getting away this time." Ryan said trying to reassure his friend. Castle just nodded,in truth they all knew how empty this promise was,Tyson had gotten away before there was no reason to believe he would not continue to evade them.

A moment latter Castle saw Alexis walk over to Gates who still seemed to be busy talking to a few people and hand her cellphone back to her and say "Thank you". Alexis then turned and walked over to her father. "Can you give us a few minutes?" She asked Ryan and Esposito.

"Sure." Ryan replied and he and Esposito walked off and began talking to someone from CSU.

"I guess you are wondering what all that was about with Captain Gates' phone." Alexis said looking somewhat embarrassed.

"Why don't you tell me." Castle said evenly looking down at his daughter trying not to give away how much he knew.

"Well you see..." Alexis began and then her face was turning red,she had to look down at the ground and avoid her father's gaze before she could continue. "For the past three and a half months I have been dating a history student named Fredrick Gates and about a month after we started dating I found out he was Captain Gates' son."

"I see." Castle said trying to sound surprised. "Why did you try to hide this from me?" He asked,he really did feel hurt that his daughter wasn't telling him what was going on in her life.

"I wasn't trying to hide it." Alexis explained trying to remain calm but the combination of embarrassment and the fact that she could see she had hurt her father was making that hard and she started to ramble."I was just waiting for the right moment,you know and with with you being so depressed it never seemed like the right moment. Then a few weeks ago Fredrick let it slip that we were dating when he talked to his mother so I was really trying to find the right moment but then all this happened and I was too panicked to thing about it. I'm sorry I didn't trust you."

At that moment Castle felt like a heel,not only had he failed to protect his daughter but his depression and wallowing in self pity had made her afraid to talk to him about things that were going well in his life. He thought about this for a moment and he decided he had to make it right. "You don't have anything to feel sorry for." He began and this seemed to surprise Alexis. "Look I always want to hear what is going on and if I was so wrapped up in myself that you were afraid that good news for you would hurt me I am sorry. I never want you to think that,sure I may get down in the dumps sometimes but I love you and I will always be happy for you. Do you understand?"

"Yeah,it's just I know you and Captain Gates haven't always gotten along and I didn't know how you would react." Alexis replied looking up at her father once again.

"That isn't anything you two should have to worry about." Castle began to explain as he looked down into his daughter's eyes. "Gates and I are adults and any problems we have we will deal with,you shouldn't have to worry about that. Promise me that you will not let anything that happens between Captain Gates and I effect how you handle things in your life."

"Okay I promise." Alexis said and a single tear ran down her cheek.,Castle then took her into a hug. "Besides I think she secretly likes me." Castle added.

"So I guess it is going well and you like him?" Castle asked,he wasn't sure it was the right thing to say or if Alexis was ready to talk about it but he really wanted to know.

"Yeah I do and it is." Alexis said pulling out of the hug. "He is smart and funny and he is working hard right now because he wants to become a professor of ancient history some day. He is also pretty much the only person I know who understands why I am still having panic attacks and nightmares."

"You're other friends don't understand." Castle asked surprised.

"Well they try to." Alexis explained. "But I can tell that they don't understand why I am still having them and are just putting up with me when they happen. Fred understands and he helps me get through them,he can take my mind off of them. I don't know why but he can."

"Well I am glad to hear that." Castle said a moment latter. Alexis looked at him as if she didn't quite believe him. "No,really I am." Castle insisted.

"Well I don't think any father is ever 100% happy to hear about his daughter dating or being in a relationship but thanks for trying." She said with a smile.

"Well thanks for putting up with your old man being an old man." Castle replied returning the smile.

It was then that Gates,Ryan,and Esposito walked over. "If you have a moment I have some news that I don't think you are going to like ." Gates said in her normal all business manor. Castle braced himself but at that moment he felt like he could take anything after getting through his talk with Alexis. A few minutes latter he would know just how wrong he could be about something.

"Give it to me straight Sir." Castle said. Alexis excused herself to go talk to her grandmother.

"Well first the FBI is on their way to take over the case." Gates said this attracted a chorus of complaints from all three men. "I can't do anything about it there has been a bombing. She explained the three men calmed down a little they still hated the idea of the feds taking the case from them but they knew there was nothing Gates could do about it.

"We'll just have to make sure they let us work the case with them." Castle said a moment later.

"Well that is the other thing you are not going to like,I am afraid you are off this case ." Gates said firmly in her best in charge boss voice.

"You can't kick Castle off this case,you asked him to come on and Tyson is after him!" Ryan objected.

"That is exactly why he can't work it,after this bombing he is now a victim,victims can't work cases." Gates explained firmly.

"But Tyson isn't going to stop coming after me or my family." Castle said he was now both angry and frustrated.

"I know." Gates said looking over at him. "That is why I am giving you more police protection and I want you and your family to check into a motel where he will have a harder time finding you until we catch him."

"But you will have a better chance of catching him with me on the case!" Castle now almost yelled.

Gates didn't let herself get drawn into an argument instead she continued to explain things calmly but firmly. "Yes I know,but when we do catch him we want the charges to stick so he never gets out of prison and if you are involved you know the charges will get thrown out of court."

"This is bullshit." Esposito injected.

Before Gates could react to this Castle spoke up,he was more subdued then he had been a minute ago. "No she is right. I don't like it but she is right. We can't risk Tyson walking. So promise me you guys will get him." Castle said looking over at his two old friends.

"We'll get him." Ryan and Esposito answered gravely.

"Now we come to the last and hardest piece of bad news." Gates said and everyone could tell from her tone that this one would be the worst. Still she had earned her position and this wasn't the first time she had to deliver a piece of news like this,still it never got any easier. "I am afraid I have to inform you that I just received a call from the hospital and Officer Simpson died about half an hour ago."

No one said anything after this,all three men just bowed their heads. There wasn't anything to say one of their own had been murdered and what is more they had all failed. Their mission from the outset had been to stop 3XK from getting a fifth victim,and now 3XK had his fifth victim,a cop and was still on the loose.

**Well there you have chapter nine. I can not express how grateful I am to everyone who has been hanging in there with me. You guy deserve so much better and I swear if I could get the chapter posted quicker I would be some days my computer just will not start or it just will not let any programs besides firefox open. I almost have the money for a new computer. Any way all of your reviews have been a huge help and I hope you will continue to review. I feel so lucky to have readers like you guys who have not given up on me. I was hopping to finish this story in a few weeks but instead it seems to be taking all summer,thanks for putting up with that. You guys are the best and your reviews are always a huge help. Again thank you and I will see you guys when I post chapter ten.**


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The mood was far from jovial as Castle,Martha,and Alexis checked into their hotel suite. They had a killer after them who would not stop,their home had been destroyed,and Castle was off the case. Castle understood why Gates had to take him off but that still didn't make him feel any better about just sitting on the sidelines and waiting for Tyson to strike. They had checked in under assumed names and they had police protection but Castle felt it was only a matter of time before Tyson tracked him down. For some reason Tyson felt Castle had wronged him and Castle knew that Tyson was not the type of man who would let anything stand between him and his revenge. These gloomy thought were foremost on Castle's mind as he selected an outfit of newly purchased clothes and headed to his bathroom to shower. They had been able to swing by Alexis' dorm room and pick up her clothes but Castle and his mother had to buy all new outfits. It seemed like they had lost everything even their names,they were checked into the hotel under assumed names and now Castle couldn't take any active role in getting what they had lost back,that was the very worst part of the whole situation.

After the third shower Castle thought he had finally gotten all of the smoke smell off of himself so at least he had managed to accomplish that much in his day. Castle then pulled on a shirt and a pair of slacks as he did so he caught sight of himself in the mirror,he looked tired,there were circles under his eyes. He decided that what he really needed to do was to take a nap and clear his head,but alas it was not to be at that moment his cellphone rang.

"Hello,Castle." He answered as he walked out of the bathroom and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Hey Castle are you alright,I only just saw the news,I just woke up after passing out from the meds a few hours ago,all they said on the news was that someone was killed in the bast!" An overly excited voice said on the other end of the line,the voice of course belonged to Detective Susan Wright the new rookie on the squad who was recovering in the hospital from a stab wound she had received from the serial killer 3XK.

"Calm down I'm okay,it was officer Simpson who was killed." Castle said quietly,he didn't like to think about the dead man or his family. Simpson's death was yet another reason Castle wished he was still on the case,his failure to catch Tyson had caused one man to die and three children to be left fatherless,he had to make up for that some how.

"Oh my god." Wright said as she let out a breath and then the line was silent for a few moments as neither she nor Castle knew what to say after that,the whole situation had spun completely out of control.

Castle was the first to speak. "So is there another reason you called me?" He asked staying calm.

"Oh,yes there is." Wright answered her mind returning to the subject at hand. "I found something that I think you should see a few hours ago but then I passed out from the meds,Can you come over?"

"Can't you just tell me over the phone?" Castle asked puzzled.

"I would rather not say over the phone,I am not one hundred percent sure and I would like you to take a look before I don anything official with this." Wright explained nervously.

Castle sighed. "Okay I'll be there in about half an hour,is that good?"

"Yeah,just be careful okay?" Wright said.

"I will,see ya then." Castle said and then he hung up.

Castle then took a moment to try and figure out how to best break the news to his mother and Alexis that he was leaving the safety of the suite to follow up a lead,he knew neither of them would be happy to hear the news. It was just at the moment when he thought he had figured out how to explain it that officer Philips,a short dark skinned woman came out of Alexis' room and walked over to him. The suite was set up so Martha's room was on the left side and Alexis' room was on the right with Castle's room in the middle,each room had it's own bathroom. Officer Philips had entered from the right hand side. " I think you may want to come in here,it's your daughter. She just got sick in the bathroom and she seems to be having some sort of panic attack." Officer Philips explained gravely as she motioned in the direction of Alexis' room.

Castle ran into Alexis' room and was shocked by what he saw,his daughter was curled up on the floor in front of her bed in the fetal position shaking and crying uncontrollably. Castle rushed over and tried to put his arms around her but she freaked out and pushed him away,she then yelled "I don't want to die!" at the top of her lungs and Castle tried again to get close to her but she wouldn't let anyone near her,she just kept repeating her quiet plea for her life over and over again while she lay on the floor shaking. Castle wanted to cry but he controlled himself,he knew he had to say strong for his daughter,he just sat a few feet away on the floor waiting for her to calm down. Finally after what felt like hours Alexis began to calm down. Without getting up Castle slowly scooted himself closer to his daughter,he made his was as if he was trying to get close to a wounded animal and when he spoke it was in a hushed tone just above a whisper.

"You are not going to die." Castle made it to within a foot of his daughter when she turned to answer him. Alexis turned and looked up at Castle,her eyes were bloodshot and had a look helplessness in them that took the heart right out of Castle. "You don't understand they are just going to keep coming until I am dead,there is nothing you can do to stop it!"

"Alexis I need you to listen to me." Castle said forcefully while looking down at his daughter,he had to try and make her understand. "No one is coming to kill you. This is not about you,this is about me. I'm so sorry you keep getting caught in the middle." He said with a sigh and he looked down at the floor as shame overtook him. He had gotten involved in a job that was not his and now his daughter was paying the price,what kind of father was he?

"It doesn't matter who they are after,sooner or later they are going to get me and there is nothing anyone can do about it." Alexis said simply and frightening calm seemed to have settled over her as if she was stating a fact that could not be argued with and she had resigned herself to or worse even accepted her fate.

Castle decided he had to do something,he could not let this go on. Castle reached out a gently took hold of his daughter's shoulders and lifted her up off of the floor,he then looked her in the eyes and spoke calmly but firmly. "I need you to understand something,this is my fault not yours and I am going to make it right. No one is going to hurt you because I am not going to let them,we have a lead and I am going to follow it wherever it leads,I am done being hunted. You are going to get out of this fine."

"You can promise that." Alexis stated as she reached for a kleanex and blew her nose. She was calming down but Castle could tell she was still very scared and upset by the events of the day.

"You are right I can't." Castle said with a heavy sigh. "Still I can promise you I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. I know the past year has been really hard on you but I promise it will get better." Alexis looked at him skeptically. "Have I ever lied to you?" He asked as helped stand up onto her feet,she was still shaking but getting better.

"Well there was that one time when I was seven and you claimed that blonde coming out of your bedroom was just interviewing for a babysitting job." Alexis replied with a weak attempt at a smile.

"_She would remember the one time her grandmother brought her home early from staying at her place." _ Castle thought to himself and his face went slightly red and he looked away for a moment. "Hey I never said who she was going to be babysitting." Castle answered defensively.

"Is that really the best story you can come up with?" Alexis said rolling her eyes,and just like that the mood in the room seemed to get a million times lighter. Castle had seen this before in the weeks right after his daughter was kidnapped,she would break down completely but then she would some how pick herself back up and be laughing a few minutes latter like the amazing young woman she was. Castle didn't know how she did it and at the moment he didn't care,he was just glad she was feeling better. He knew she would still need help in the long term but at least for the short term he didn't have to be afraid for her.

"Look that is my story and I am sticking to it." Castle said returning to the conversation.

Alexis then reached out and hugged him. "Sorry I panicked just now." She whispered. "I am trying but it was just everything that happened just hit me at once and I couldn't handle it."

"It's okay you have nothing to be sorry for,I wish you didn't have to go through this but you will get through it and you know why?" He asked as he released her from the hug.

"Because I have an amazing father who will not give up on me?" Alexis replied.

"Well that and you are amazing,you have a lot to live for and I know you. I know you will not let some coward who is sneaking around out there ruin your life." He said looking down at his daughter with pride.

"Okay I promise that if you don't give up on me I will not give up on myself." Alexis said and then she sat down on the edge of the bed.

"You don't have to worry I will never give up on you." Castle replied.

"Okay but I do need you to promise me one more thing." Alexis said looking up at his and her tone turned gave again. "I need you to promise me that you will not get yourself killed trying to protect me. I know you may think you would be saving me but I wouldn't be able to go on after that. Promise me you will come back."

Silence filled the room as the gravity of what Alexis had just said sank in,but after a minute or some Castle finally answered. "I promise I will come back."

"Okay now if you don't mind I think I am going to take a nap,I am tired." Alexis said and she made her way to the head of her bed and pulled the covers over herself.

"Okay I am going to go catch this killer." Castle said looking down at her. "I love you pumpkin."

"I love you too dad,please be careful." Alexis said with a yawn.

"I will." Castle promised and then he walked out of the room. _"How dare Tyson undo all the progress Alexis has made!"_ Castle thought to himself as he left the room. His heart was filled with the most pure form of rage he had ever felt. There was no way Tyson was getting away from him,he would not let him escape because doing so would mean that Alexis would be haunted by her fear of him for the rest of her life and he would not let that happen. He didn't know what Wright had found but he would follow the clue and do whatever it took to make things right. He was done playing around,he was now the hunter and Tyson was now the prey. As Castle grabbed his coat and marched out the door he decided that he was not returning until Tyson was either dead of in prison and at that moment he would rather Tyson be dead. Richard Castle was on a mission and no one was going to be able to stop him.

**Okay I am really sorry this chapter is so short but there are two reasons for that. One my computer has completely broken down so I am having to write on the family computer or use the library computer,and it is hard to get time to write on those. Second this started out as the intro to the next more action packed chapter but I decided that it worked better completely focusing on Alexis. I wanted one chapter that was just about her since she seems to get sidelined on the show so much lately. Oh and do you think I went over the top,i have been doing a lot of research into PTSD not just for this but for something original I am working on so I tried to make it match what I have read but I am worried that it may not be in character for Alexis. Please let me know what your thought are pro and con on this issue.**

**Oh and now for the piece of good news,I have gotten the money and ordered all the parts I need to build my brand new computer and they should be here in a few days so hopefully I will have this story finished by next weekend. I know I should have had it finished months ago but I am hoping the adage better lat then never holds true. All of you guys have been so amazing and I am so grateful you have hung in here with me and all of the reviews have been a huge help in helping me figure out what works and what doesn't please keep them coming and as always thanks for reading.**


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

To say that detectives Ryan and Esposito had a bad day would be an understatement of biblical,tragic Greek,and Shakespearian proportions,the day had been a complete disaster. Their friend Richard Castle's home had been blown apart by a killer they only had one slim lead to and even that they were unable to work since Special Agent Blake of the FBI was not interested in working the case with them,instead he had just come in and taken over. The short,fat,middle aged,balding man wanted nothing to do with the detectives who had "let" the 3XK killer escape so many times before. Captain Gates could do nothing to help them since the bombing had made it an FBI case,so they were stuck doing background research into one of Tyson's victims hoping she would some how lead them to him while the FBI was doing the real work in an office they had taken over,the day had not gone well. It was while they were at this low point that Esposito's phone rang.

"Detective Esposito." Esposito answered picking the phone up off of his desk.

"Sir,this is detective Wright." A nervous female voice said on the other end of the line. "Hey I think I may have found something but I am not sure. I was wondering if you are not to busy if you could come over and have a look." Wright asked.

"Well we are not doing much good here since the feds took over so I guess so." Esposito replied intrigued. "But can't you tell me what it is over the phone?"

"Look it's big and I really want to be sure about this before I say anything so I want you to see for yourself,okay?" Wright replied.

"Okay,we will see you in a bit." Esposito replied and then he hung up. If anyone could understand wanting to be sure before pointing the finger at someone it was him,he had been the one to point the finger at Castle when 3Xk tried to frame his friend and if it had not been for some quick thinking on Castle's part Esposito would have been responsible for his friend's death. He had never completely forgiven himself for not trusting Castle and pointing the finger at him in the first place. Still he wondered who Wright was talking about that had her so concerned. There was only one thing that was for sure he was not going to find out sitting there in the precinct so he stood up and grabbed his jacket off of the back of his chair.

"Yo,let's take a trip to the hospital." He said pointing at Ryan his best friend and partner.

"Sure,but why now?" Ryan asked puzzled as he looked up from the background research he was doing on Jenifer Alan.

"Wright says she has something to show us." Esposito explained.

"Oh well then should we tell agent Blake?" Ryan asked as he stood up and grabbed his coat.

"No you heard him,he doesn't want to waist time with anything we have to say." Espisoto said and then both men made their way over to the elevator.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX

When Castle finally got to the hospital he was informed by a nurse that Wright had been taken away so some tests could be run on her and it would be more then an hour before she would be back. This left Castle with nothing better to do then to sit outside her room waiting. That was the last thing Castle wanted to do,he wanted to get whatever lead Wright had and spring into action,he was afraid of what would happen to him if he was given time to think about that day's events and let everything that had happened really sink in. He tried to stave off his gloomy thoughts but with nothing else to think about and exhaustion overtaking him he found them slowly taking over his mind. He was completely overwhelmed and found himself looking off into space and not noticing anything that was going on around him,he didn't even notice the footsteps as someone walked right up to him and said hello.

" are you alright?" A female voice asked and this got a reaction out of Castle,he slowly looked up at her with his dead eyes. He saw that it was the surgeon who had saved detective Wright's life who had spoken and she looked concerned.

"Yeah I am fine." He answered blankly,He was too tired to say anything else.

"You waiting to see your friend?" She asked,she could tell he was in some form of shock and wanted to keep things simple.

"Yeah." Was the only reply Castle could give her at that moment.

"Well it doesn't look like she will be back soon,would you like to get cup of coffee with me while you wait." Smith asked,she didn't normally do this sort of thing but she had seen this type of shock before and want to help and she knew that with most people that being left alone in a hallway at a time like this was the worst thing that could happen to them.

"Okay." Castle replied,he was too tired to argue with anyone.

"Alright then let's go get some coffee." Smith said smiling to try and cheer Castle up and she led him walked with him down the hall.

A few minutes later Castle found himself sitting at a small table in the crowded hospital cafeteria. Normally he would have resented the noise that was produced by all the people talking at once but at that moment he was glad it was there,it meant that everyone was too caught up in their own conversations to pay any attention to him. A few minutes latter he noticed a steaming cup of coffee at been placed in front of his face and had taken the seat opposite him. Castle sipped the coffee,grateful that he something to do.

"I saw the news,do you want to talk about it?" Smith asked.

"Why do you care,you are a complete stranger?" Castle replied answering her question with a question,he was looking in her direction but not focusing on her,he was just looking directly ahead.

"Well maybe I have been where you are right now and I wish I had someone to talk to when I was going through this. It's not easy getting over nearly being killed." Smith explained,she didn't know why she was telling him this other then the fact that she hated seeing people in pain,and clearly the bombing had shaken this man to his core.

"It's not me,I had to get use to this a long time ago. It's my daughter,she was in the loft when the bomb went off." Castle blurted out and damn it he had no idea why he had just said that but suddenly everything he was feeling just came pouring out all at once. "And now she is scarred of everything and I am worried that her life is ruined and there is nothing I can do to fix it. I mean how do you come back from something like that?!"

"Oh my god,I can't imagine what I would do if that happened to my daughter." Smith said quietly a moment later.

"You have a daughter?" Castle asked grateful to have the focus shift off of him for a moment after his outburst.

"Yeah a seven year old,her father walked out on both of us three years ago." Smith explained. "I can't imagine what you must be going through as a parent right now but please believe me when I say that I know from past experience that your daughter can get over this."

"I don't see how." Castle muttered grimly.

"I know she can because I went through something similar when I was a kid and I was able to pull myself together." Castle gave her a questioning look but didn't say anything so she decided to tell him a little more. "When I was fourteen I was kidnapped and held hostage for over a week and nearly died and I was messed up for a long time but with help I was able to put my life back on track."

"I am sorry to hear that." Castle said looking directly at Smith for the first time and it struck him what a beautiful smart woman she looked to be,it was hard to believe that she had that kind of pain in her past. "How were you able to go on?" He asked,I he didn't know why he was trusting this woman so much other then he needed a lifeline at that moment and she was offering one.

"I figured out that if I let what happened in the past define me and if I didn't find someone to move on the bastards may as well have killed me." Wright explained. "At some point you have to move on from the pain of the past and live in the present or you are going to miss out on your whole life."

"I guess you are right about that." Castle said with a weak smile. "I just hope my daughter is able to figure that out."

"Well if you are there for her I am sure she will I had to learn it on my own." Smith said and then her cellphone beeped. "That will be my babysitter wondering why I am not home yet." She said with a laugh and then got the cellphone out of her pocket. "I need to go,are you going to be okay?" Smith asked as she stood up.

"You know thanks to your talk I think I will be." Castle said with the first genuine smile he had had in days. "Thanks,this talk was a big help."

"Well I am happy I could help,see you latter." And with that Smith turned and left leaving Castle alone at the table.

For a moment he was confused by his feelings. "_Did she just say see you latter? Would she be willing to see me latter? Why am I thinking about this sort of thing when there is a serial killer after me? Rick you have the worst timing in human history." _Where all thoughts that ran through his head still as he stood up to returned to Wright's room to wait he had to admit that his spirits felt lighter then they had in a long long time so who knew maybe when this was all over if she didn't mind going out with a fat out of work writer they could do something together but he couldn't think of that at the moment. He put all of those thoughts on the back burner and returned his focus to Tyson,before he could do anything else he had to catch Tyson.

**Okay again sorry for another short chapter but my new computer parts should be here today and I wanted to give you guys something before I went offline for a few days while building and setting up my new computer. I promise the next few chapters will be more action packed because we are getting into the final act of the story. I want to thank you again for putting up with all the delays,this story started out as an exercise but it has grown into something else and I hope you have been enjoying it. If you would like to read another story set in the Wrightverse let me know as I have an idea or a story that would be more lighthearted then this one. I know most fans can't stand this story because Beckett isn't in it and I understand but if there are some of you who would like a follow up story please let me know in the reviews or the private messages. Any way you guys have been amazing and if all goes well I should be able to finish this story next week. As always thanks for reading and reviewing.**


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Castle arrived back outside of Wright's hospital room to find that she had been returned there and a nurse was getting her situated,he was about to go inside when Ryan and Esposito came jogging down the hall in his direction.

"Castle what are you doing here?" Ryan asked puzzled,after all Gates had kicked the writer off the case.

"Just visiting a sick friend,Wright called me." Castle replied innocently.

Esposito just just shook his head he knew that it was useless to try and talk his friend into leaving. "Look if Gates finds out you are here we never met,got it?" He said rather harshly.

"Got it." Castle replied and it was at that moment that the nurse finally left Wright alone.

"Hey you guys can come in now." Wright called from her room.

The three men entered the room and then the four of them exchanged pleasantries for a minute or two,Wright asked about the case and Esposito told her and Castle the bad news about how the FBI had taken them off of it.

"Well I may have a lead for you but I want you to see it for yourselves." Wright said reaching for Castle's laptop. She then opened the lid and the three men huddled around her bed looking at the screen ,she brought up the media player program which was paused at a point on the dvd of security camera footage from the electronics store and all three men were shocked by what they saw. The screen showed Tyson talking to someone that he clearly knew and the fact that all three men knew the man by sight caused them to remain silent for a moment,it was that hard to believe.

Ryan finally broke the stunned silence. "Percy?!" He said leaning in to get a closer look at the screen.

"Who?" Castle asked he had a feeling he knew the man on screen but he wasn't sure where from.

"Officer Jackson. He has work at the 12th for four years but he has been out for the past eight months after he took a bullet in the leg breaking up an armed robbery..."Esposito began to explain before being interrupted by Castle.

"Wait hold on." Castle said turning to his right so he was facing the other three members of the team. "You are telling me that there has been an officer Percy Jackson working at the precinct for four years and nobody told me?!" He said in disbelief.

"I guess we all figured you noticed him,after all you do see him almost every day." Esposito replied.

"Excuse me but I think I would remember meeting a Percy Jackson,clearly we have never met." Castle retorted,he couldn't believe he had missed such a perfect set up for so many bad jokes.

"Dude he works the front desk most days,you have met him before." Ryan said adding his own two cents. "You sure you are the same guy who has been working with us for five years?"

"Yeah,I can't believe I missed him. He was hiding in plain sight." Castle said with a sigh.

"In more ways then one." Esposito said gravely. "No wonder 3XK has always been one step ahead of us,he has had a man on the inside the whole time."

"Now wait we don't know that,maybe this is not as bad as it looks." Ryan said. "We don't know he has been working with Tyson the whole time."

"Just once is enough." Esposito said and there was no mistaking the anger in his voice.

"Besides we know he was working with Tyson last year." Castle said grimly and this got looks from all three members of the team. "We never did figure out how he got into the police computer system,my loft,or how he shut down the security cameras at the 12th."

"He had help from the inside." Wright whispered. "But how did having an officer inside the precinct help him get into your loft unnoticed?" She asked looking over at Castle.

"Well Beckett sometimes left the keys to her apartment in her desk and when I gave her a key to the loft she left it there too. Jackson must have made a copy." Castle explained.

"Damn it! There were so many things about that case that didn't add up and if had been asking the questions we could have caught this guy months ago!" Esposito exclaimed.

"It's not your fault,Tyson was declared dead and the case was closed." Ryan said trying to console his friend.

"If it's anyone's fault it's mine." Castle said shocking everyone in the room. "I was the one person who knew he was still alive but I was just so happy that I was off the hook and wanted to move on with my life so I didn't push it. I should have pushed for us to keep working the case."

"I don't see how that follows." Wright said looking up at Castle. "I mean you are not even a cop and you guys had other cases to work. This isn't your fault,if anything it's the the fault of those idiots who declared 3XK dead when they didn't have a body."

"Yeah I guess,still I feel like I should have done more." Castle said with a sigh. "I am supposed to be an expert on this guy,after all I am the one he keeps coming after and so far I have not been able to stop him from doing squat."

"Well maybe this will cheer you up." Ryan piped in. "I was looking into Jenifer's background and Espo told me what you said about thinking she had a tragedy in her life and you were right."

"What did you find?" Castle asked hopefully,maybe they finally had something and between the dirty cop and Jenifer they could start to close in on Tyson.

"Well it seems that when she was nine someone broke into her family's house and things got ugly,the guy ended up killing her fourteen year old brother right in front of her." Ryan explained.

"Oh,my god." Wright said letting out a breath.

"Yeah it's a hell of a thing for a kid to go through." Esposito agreed.

"Well I am guessing that scared her and it would explain the books and the acting." Castle said thoughtfully,Everyone else looked at him puzzled so he explained. "She couldn't stand her own life so she turned to acting in order to lose herself in characters,she didn't have to think about her own life while she was acting."

Everyone took a moment to think about this for a few seconds before Esposito broke the silence. "There was also one other thing we learned,CSU found something creepy in her apartment."

"I shrunken head collection?" Castle interrupted contributing the closet thing to a crazy theory he had offered in the whole case. This drew looks for Ryan and Esposito and a confused eye roll from Wright.

"No,it's a little creepier then that if you ask me." Ryan replied. "Jenifer had one of those really deep flower pots and CSU found a body in it."

"What type of body,a Munchkin?" Castle asked jokingly.

"No,a strangled kitten." Ryan answerd.

"Yuck,you are right that is creepy." Wright said and she turned her head away from the group hoping to hide just how sick she felt at that moment.

"Yeah what we can't figure out is why Tyson would kill a kitten and bury the body in one of Jenifer's flower pots." Esposito added.

"He didn't,Jenifer did." Castle and Wright chimed in almost in unison surprising each other.

"What,why would she do something like that?" Ryan asked his puzzlement showing on his face.

"Because Tyson was turning her." Wright explained this drew looks of disbelief from both Ryan and Esposito so she continued to explain. "Don't you see that was the missing piece of the puzzle,Jenifer wasn't just another victim Tyson was hoping she would be his new partner."

At this point Castle took over and continued to explain the theory he and Wright had both built at the same time. "He was slowly turning her trying to show her what it felt like the have the power he has,we all know he is always on the look out for a new partner."

"But then why kill her,that doesn't make a lot of sense?" Esposito pointed it out.

"Because she wasn't completely evil like him,she was just looking for some control over a life that she has felt was out of control since she was a kid." Wright explained.

"Yeah." Castle jumped in at that point. "He was using that need to manipulate her because he must have seen something of himself in her. So he was slowly turning her and killing the kitten was a stp on the path."

"But then something happened and the whole plan fell apart maybe she came to her senses and he had to kill her." Wright took over.

"And then he hid the body for as long as he could but he had to dump her!" Wright and Castle finished together.

"Well it's an interesting theory but how does it help us find Tyson?" Ryan asked.

"If I am right..." Castle began but was then interrupted by Wright. "If we are right." "Okay if WE are right." Castle continued waving his finger back and forth to indicate both himself and Wright. "Then there has to be some sort of link between Tyson and Jenifer we just have to find it. I am going back there."

"Hey wait a second you are off the case,you can't go around asking questions." Esposito objected.

Castle stood up and there was a determination in his eyes that could not be argued with. "The only way you get me off of this case is if you lock me up,are going going to do that?" He challenged.

"No." Esposito said with a sigh,he knew their friendship would not survive that blow and after what had happened the last time they had gone up against Tyson he wasn't willing to second guess his friend still he added. "If you do anything to get our case thrown out of court the next time Tyson kills it will be on you."

"I know that." Castle replied with grim determination. "I am just going to ask some questions and that is all. There is no law against that. If anyone asks it's for research and we never talked."

"Okay." Esposito said a moment later and then he turned to Ryan. "We need to get back to the precinct and talk to Gates about Jackson he is still our best lead."

"I am not looking forward to that conversation." Ryan observed. "Gates spent her life as an I.A cop and now it turns out a cop under her command is helping a serial killer,that is going to be fun."

"Yeah,but the longer we wait the more damage he can do to the case." Esposito pointed out and then he turned to Wright. "Hope you feel better."

"Yeah get back on your feet soon,we need more detectives like you on the job." Ryan added and then he and Esposito were gone and Wright couldn't stop a smile from spreading across her face,it was the first time either of the men on her team had said she was a good detective. A moment later she looked around for Castle but found that he had already left the room.

Castle was already down the hall and as he quickly stepped into the elevator he pulled out his cellphone and dialed a rarely used number. "Hey,Colin I am guessing you saw the news." He said a moment later and after waiting for a reply he continued. "Well I have a favor to ask you and it is a big one." Castle was one the move and he had a plan,Tyson would not escape this time.

**Okay sorry I got the parts but I found that I needed a few other new parts for my computer because I had to change motherboards and so I am waiting for them to show up. I am having to wright on the family computer and today is the first chance I have had to get on it since Saturday. I am really sorry for the delay and if I missed replying to any of your reviews or private messages because of this I am sorry. Thanks for sticking it out with me. As always I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks for reading.**


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Captain Gates appeared to just barely be able to hold her anger in check when she was shown the footage of officer Jackson talking to Tyson in the electronics store. It was not surprising,after all the woman had devoted her life to taking down dirty cops and she had just been shown proof that the dirtiest cop of them all had been working right under her nose for years. Detectives Ryan and Esposito stood in front of her desk waiting for her response to the footage,after a moment she turned around and spoke in a calm professional manner,still there was something about her voice that indicated that she was just barely keeping herself from going down to the front desk beating a confession out of Jackson herself.

"We have to tell agent Blake and see what he wants to do with this information." Gates said shocking the two men.

"You don't want us to grab him before he tips off Tyson again." Ryan asked.

"It's not my choice this is the FBI's case and they may want to tail him and see if he leads them to Tyson." Gates replied.

"But we already have one officer down and for all we know he will not talk to Tyson directly again. Plus if he does know where Tyson is I say we play it safe and just arrest him and sweat it out of him." Esposito objected.

"Again it is not our case so it is not our call." Gates restated. "I'll show agent Blake the footage,you two get back to work."

Ryan and Esposito were about to object but Gates gave them a look that told them that arguing with her was not a good idea so they both just nodded and returned walked out of the office.

"I can't believe we are still off the case,I thought Gates would be a little more grateful that we caught him." Ryan fumed as he sat down at his desk with a huff.

"Well look at it from her point of view,she could lose her job over this." Esposito said looking over at his friend.

"What,how?" Ryan asked in disbelief.

"Think about it when this goes public it is bound to be a major scandal and who do you think the mayor and the bosses at One PP are going to put the blame on?" Epsosito explained.

"Gates." Ryan said with an angry sigh. "This stinks she gives her whole life to the force and that scumbag downstairs is going to take it all away from her and there isn't anything we can do about it."

"There is one thing." Esposito said interrupting his friend's gloomy thoughts. "We can catch Tyson before the news breaks. If the 12th instead of the FBI gets him first Gates will look pretty good and it may make it harder for them to fire her."

"Great idea but how do we do it?" Ryan asked.

"Well I just pulled up Jackson's personal file and got his address,you up for a little B&E?" Esposito replied with a question as he stood up from his desk and grabbed his coat.

"Sure,what's a little prison time between friends." Ryan said as he got up and followed Esposito to the elevator.

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Castle sighed to himself as he looked at his watch for about the one dozenth time. When he got the idea to waiting in the shadows of Jenifer Alan's apartment lobby and scare the truth out of the super it seemed like a good one but after waiting more then half an hour for the super to show up he was not so sure. He thought to himself that he now knew why no one would want to be Batman in real life,the job would be one of the most boring in existence. Finally after a few more minutes of waiting he heard some footsteps enter the lobby from the direction of the elevator. He peeked out from the shadows in his corner of the room beside the door to the stairs for the emergency fire exit and he saw it was indeed Fred Thomson the building's super and he seemed to be headed for the front door,this was perfect as it meant he had to walk past Castle. Castle waited for his moment and when it came he struck like a cat,he grabbed the man and pulled him onto the stairs slamming him against the wall before he knew what hit him.

"Who are you,what do you want?!" The clearly frightened man demanded.

Castle decided to keep him off balance and didn't answer the question and instead responded with a statement. "I know you lied to the police Fred,I know you saw this man before." He said holding up a picture of Tyson.

At the mention of police Thomson seemed to remember who Castle was and tried to pulled away. "Wait a second you're the police,you can't do this!" he said as he tried to push past Castle.

"Wrong!" Castle yelled as he slammed Thomson back against the wall. "I work with the police but I am not one of them. Right now I am just a guy who's family is in danger and you do not want to know how far I will go to protect my family. I know this man must have come here many times and I don't believe he could have done that without you seeing him at least once,so tell me what you know because I will do whatever it takes to get him and protect my family." Castle looked at Thomson directly in the eyes without blinking and he reached into his jacket pocket with his right hand as if he was reaching for a gun,he really only had his cellphone in there but it seemed to do the trick as Thomson stopped resisting and started talking as fast as he could.

"Alright I just wanted to make a few bucks but it's not worth getting hurt over! Whoever he was he was seeing the Alan girl but he said he was famous and every time he came over he would slip me a few bucks to let him in the back way so he would be seen. Then after she vanished he showed up a few days ago and paid me to keep my mouth shut and let me into her apartment for a few minutes." Thomson said very quickly and Castle could see the panic in his eyes.

Suddenly a thought struck Castle. "Wait when he left did you see anything in his hands?" He asked the frightened older man.

"He had something in them but it can't of been important because he tossed it in the garbage chute." Thomson replied as he calmed a little since he was beginning to become sure Castle wouldn't really shoot him.

"Has the garbage been picked up since then?" Castle asked hoping against hope that he finally had a lead.

"No it doesn't get picked up until tomorrow." Thomson answered.

"Show me where the garbage is kept,we are going to find whatever he tossed in there." Castle said calming a little,he now had a lead again and he was ready to spring into action.

"It's in the basement but going through all that stuff will take hours!" Thomson protested.

"Would you rather I tell the police you lied to them and helped a serial killer stalk one of his victims?!" Castle asked glaring at Thomson in such a way that the man knew he would do it,at this Thomson seemed to resign himself to his fate and silently lead Castle down the stairs to the basement.

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Captain Gates was in her office with agent Blake and had just finished telling him all about Jackson and had just listened to Blake outline his plan and Gates didn't like it one bit. Not only would the plan take away any chance she would have to redeem herself for not spotting a dirty cop working right under her nose but she was not sure it would work. She was pretty sure Tyson would not contact Jackson directly and unless something she didn't understand was going on there was no reason for Tyson to tell Jackson where he lived.

"So you understand you and your people are not to get involved,I don't want Jackson tipped off that we are on to him." Blake said in the type of commanding tone that only came from someone who was used to getting his way all the time.

"Yes I understand but I am only doing this this under protest. We have no way of knowing that Jackson will get in contact with Tyson before Tyson strikes again. If he does know where Tyson is I still say our best option is to take him in and sweat it out of him. We have more then enough to put him away and I believe he will crack before he will lead us to Tyson on his own." Gates protested trying to remain calm and in control.

"And if he doesn't crack we lose our best lead. No,this is the FBI's case so we are doing this my way." Blake said forcefully.

"Alright but just remember I warned you that you were putting lives at risk." Gates said as Blake turned to leave.

Blake turned around he had decided he didn't like this woman and wasn't about to let her have the last word. "I will remind you that you are the one who let a serial killer get away and let his partner work under your nose for years and arrested the wrong man last year. I think I have a better handle on this case,don't you." With that Blake turned and left the office before Gates could respond.

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Castle and Thomson had been digging through garbage for almost two hours and it was looking pretty bleak,there was just so much of it and whatever Tyson had thrown away could be anything,still when starting the task Castle had been sure he would know what it was when he saw it. Still at that moment he was starting to lose hope,it had been hours and the smell was starting to get to him. Normally nothing could make Castle go diving into trash the way he was at that moment and he was sure that his new clothes had been ruined but nothing was going to stop him,somewhere in that pile of garbage was a lead to Tyson and he was going to find it.

"There is nothing here to find and I have other work to do." Thomson whined.

"It's here it has to be,and we are going to keep looking until we find it." Castle said firmly.

"I am telling you we can't find it." Thomson protested.

"We wouldn't have to go looking for it if you had told the police the truth and not taken a bribe from a serial killer." Castle shot back,this seemed to shut Thomson up and he went back to digging through the trash.

"Hey what is that?" Castle asked pointing to a small shiny object that was laying half covered with trash at Thomson's feet.

"I have no idea." Thomson said picking it up and suddenly a bulb went off in Castle's head.

"It's a laptop hard drive!" He said excitedly. "Give it here." He ordered Thomson and Thomson handed it over and Castle took a good look at it. "It's the same name brand as Jenifer's computer,it's her hard drive." Castle didn't wait for Thomson to reply he just climbed out of the garbage and walked quickly to the basement door,he pulled out his cellphone and dialed. "Hey Colin." He said a moment latter as he made his way up the stairs and into daylight. "That favor I said I may need from you,well it turns out I need it. I'll be over in about fifteen minutes."

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Ryan and Esposito were standing in the third floor hallway of an apartment building,Esposito was working on the lock on the door to one of the rooms while Ryan was looking from side to side nervously,both men had gloves on there hands and the tension that was hanging in the air could have been cut with a knife.

"Could you hurry up,someone is going to come down this hall any minute and see us." Ryan said as he paced back and forth behind his friend.

"Hey it's been a really long time since I had to do this,cops don't normally have to jimmy locks to get in somewhere." Esposito responded heatedly.

"Well if you don't finish soon we will be luck to avoid jail time let alone keep our jobs." Ryan pointed out.

"I almost have it." Esposioto said as he worked the lock pick.

"Well I hope so because I think I hear someone about to come around the corner." Ryan warned and he was right,Esposito could hear footsteps getting closer.

"Hurry up!" Ryan said on the edge of panic they were sure to get caught but then just at the last minute the lock twisted and the door opened,Esposito and Ryan ducked into the apartment and slammed the door behind them. A moment later they heard the footsteps pass the door. "That was too close." Ryan said a second later.

"Yeah there is no way we are ever doing that again." Esposito agreed.

Both men stood and caught their breath for a moment and took a look around the room,it was your average new york city apartment and at first glance there didn't seem to be anything that would help them.

"Hey any idea what we are looking for?" Ryan asked hopefully.

"I don't know just look for anything that can tell us how Jackson is connected to 3XK or if he knows where he is." Esposito said.

"Okay I'll start in the bed room." Ryan said heading off to the right in the direction of the bedroom.

"I'll start in here." Esposito said heading in the direction of a small computer desk that was in the far corner of the main living room he was in. He tried to log on to the computer but it was password protected so he pulled open a small drawer,it was mostly full of odds and ends but a piece of paper at the bottom got Epsosito's attention,he picked it up. "Hey Ryan come have a look at this!" He yelled.

"What is it?" Ryan asked.

Esposito held up the piece of paper. "It's a high school diplomia,and isn't it from the same high school that we found out Tyson went to when we did the background check on him?"

Ryan looked at the piece of paper a moment. "Yeah you're right. I guess we know where they hooked up."

"So he has been working with Tyson all this time,no wonder he has always been one step ahead of us." Esposito said as he placed the paper back where he found it. "Have you found anything?" He asked Ryan.

"Nothing,you find anything else?" Ryan replied.

"Nope the computer is password protected." Esposito said and then both men went silent they heard the chilling sound of a key being turned in the lock.

"Out the fire escape!" Epsosito whispered and both men nearly trampled each other trying to get to the window and force it open,they managed to jump out onto the escape and begin running down just as the door opened. Ryan had gotten slightly ahead of Esposito and yelled back at him. "This is the last time I go along with one of your plans!"

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Colin was an overweight British computer expert who lived in a small New York apartment,he sometimes did work for the government but he didn't much care who he worked for as long as they paid well. Castle had used him for research on some of his books and in return Castle got him good seats at sporting events from time to time. It had taken Colin no time at all to find that the hard drive was mostly full of just photos and Email. Some of the photos showed Jenifer and Tyson together and seemed to confirm they were dating,the emails even seemed to confirm what Castle and Wright had suspected that Tyson was trying to turn Alan into his new partner. The emails from Alan talked about how she felt powerless and afraid and the Emails that seemed to come from Tyson talked about how he could show her how to take control. There seemed to be two or three emails each way a day up until forty eight hours before Jenifer was killed,and Castle had to wonder what had happened but that was not the most important part,the important part was that Colin had gotten an IP address and it belonged to an apartment building. That was how Castle found himself not half an hour later in the lobby of a nice apartment building hoping he was not on a wild goose chase. He had tried calling Ryan and Esposito but both of their phones had been off and he couldn't call Gates so he was on his own. After a minute or two of looking around Castle spotted a middle aged man who looked like the super.

"Excuse me but can you tell me if this man live here?" Castle asked trying not to sound excited.

"Yeah,that's the guy from 5A what's it to you?" The super replied but Castle didn't answer him instead he dashed for the elevator and pushed the button for the fifth floor before the super could stop him. Castle didn't know what his plan was besides waiting to see if Tyson came home and he wished he could get a hold of Ryan and Esposito but at least he had something close to a plan and he wasn't about to let Tyson get away again.

Castle stepped out of the elevator excitedly and quickly found apartment 5A. He found that the door was locked so he backed up and through himself against the door with his right shoulder. The door burst open and Castle stumbled into the room. The first thing that greeted his eyes was a large table that had what looked like bomb making materials on it,there was no mistake this was Tyson's home. Castle was trying to decide what to do next when he felt a sharp pain as something hit the back of his head and he fell to the floor dead to the world.

**Well hope you liked it. As always please leave a review and thanks for reading.**


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

The first thing Castle became aware of when he came to was that the room he was in was bathed in bright yellowish light. The second was that the room was full of light,as he gathered his wits he began to work out that he was in a small bathroom somewhere. As Castle became more aware of his surroundings he tried to move but found he could not,his limbs were tied to the wooden dinning room chair he was in. He looked around for some means of escape. There was a sink and counter with a mirror above them off to his left and there was a toilet to his right but he didn't see anything that he thought would help. A few feet in front of him was a tub shower with the shower curtains drawn,Castle thought he could make out a shape on the other side of the dark blue curtains but then he heard the bathroom door open behind him. Castle strained moving his head from one side to the other to try and see whoever had entered the room but he didn't have any luck. A moment later the man stepped in front of him,it was Tyson,Castle was face to face with the killer at last.

"Hey Castle I was starting to think you would never wake up." Tyson said with an evil grin. "By the way thanks for walking into my trap. I wasn't sure you would do it but I guess that is why you need a partner."

"You left the hard drive on purpose." Castle observed grimly as he slowly came to his senses. "So now I am here and you can kill me,why don't you just get it over with?"

"Oh come on you know I wouldn't make it that easy,there is no thrill in that plus I did promise to take everything from you and there is no point in doing that if you are dead." Tyson said as stooped down to Castle's level and gave him an evil look.

"Whatever you do you will get caught,you are running out of places to hide." Castle replied,he didn't know what he could do to save his life so he just made a threat and hoped he could bluff Tyson,it didn't work.

'Oh come on you and I both know you have Nothing!" Tyson slapped Castle as he yelled the last part. "I can do whatever I want because you are now alone. That makes us even more alike then we were before,we have both lost someone but you took her from me and now I have to pay you back for that."

"I didn't even know Jenifer,and I don't think she was ever yours." Castle shot back.

"She would have been and you did take her. You may not kill people directly but you are as much a killer as I am." Tyson said in a tone that sent a shiver down Castle's spine,he then stood up and turned his back to Castle. "You see I finally found someone who understood that taking life is the only way we have any power over death and I was showing her that,she was on the path and soon she would have been mine and we would have played the game together."

"Well I don't think the world needs two of you Tyson so if I stopped that somehow I must have done something right." Castle said dryly. Inside Castle was shaking with fear and he was looking for some way,any way out but in his heart he knew he was going to die in this small bathroom and in a strange way that gave him courage,if he was going to die no matter what he did he was going to go out giving this monster a piece of his mind. "Still I don't understand why you think I had anything to do with her death,you are the monster who killed her."

Tyson turned around his eye were full of a pure hatred and rage that Castle had never seen before and suddenly he was back to that first night when he figured out who Tyson was,that same fear and helplessness over took him,he started to sweat and his heart was racing. When Tyson spoke his voice was quiet and did not betray the rage on his face,and some how that made the whole situation much more scary. "Isn't that just like you even when looking right at death all the pieces have to fall into place."

"If you don't tell me how am I being punished?" Castle choked out against his own fear,his courage was failing him and all he knew to do was play for time and hope that Ryan and Esposito managed to find him in time so he had to keep talking no matter how scared he was.

"I know what you are doing." Tyson said with a smile. "You are playing for time because you think your friends will find you,well there is no rescue coming today because look what I can do." Tyson then made his way over to the counter and flipped open a laptop that was sitting on it,a program was already running. "Thanks to a friend of mine who I know that you know about I am in the systems at the 12th,it's the same hack that let me get into the cells and talk to you the last time we met." Tyson gleefully explained. "And now with a few clicks of the mouse I can unleash a virus that will crash their whole network,including the computers that the FBI is using." Tyson then hit a few buttons and to Castle's horror an error message appeared that indicated that the computers Tyson was connected to were no longer running. "So it is just you and me now Castle." Tyson said turning back to him with a grin,He then pulled a cellphone out of his pocket and dialed a number. "But first lets make sure they will have their hands full for the rest of the day." He then took a few steps away from Castle and turned his back on him again.

By that point Castle was in a complete panic,there was no one to save him. He struggled but he couldn't get free of the ropes that held him to the chair and Tyson knew that they knew about Jackson so he knew that Tyson would never let Jackson lead anyone to him. Through his panic he made out bits and pieces of Tysons on the phone the one thing he heard loud and clear where the words "Are you at your place? Good." then Tyson pulled another cellphone out of his pocket,it was Castle's own cellphone and he dial a number on it. Tyson then waited a few seconds and returned both cellphones to his pocket.

"There." Tyson said in a calm manner that did nothing to help Castle's growing sense of panic. "I just blew up Percy and now the NYPD has a bombing to deal with. Another death on your hands."

"Just kill me and end this then." Castle mumbled as he hung his head,he resigned himself to his fate.

"You don't want to know why I am doing all this?" Tyson asked and his tone betrayed a hint of something close to surprise.

"It doesn't mater,it will not change anything so just end this stupid game." Castle replied not looking up at Tyson.

"You know it was all because of you. I was getting Jenifer right where I wanted her and then there was a new report about my work and thanks to you they had a photo of me and she panicked so I had to kill her. You ruined everything and that is why I am not going to kill you." Tysons explained as he looked at Castle with cold dead eyes.

"What are you going to do?" Castle asked suddenly filled with fear that he already knew the answer.

"I am going to take everything from you and then let you live,I am going to kill everyone you care about and then you will live the rest of your life knowing that you had three chances to save them and you failed!" Tyson said coldly and he yelled the last part.

"You're sick but you will never get to them!" Castle shouted suddenly returning to life,there was fire in his eyes again and he had pushed his fear and depression down again,he couldn't afford to have those feelings at that moment. "If you do get to them somehow I will use every last cent to my name,every last contact I have,and every last breath in my body to hunt you down and then when I find you I will use all my imagination to come up with a means to kill you that will leave you begging me for death for days." Castle's voice became calm when he said this and he looked Tyson straight in the eyes without flinching and it was clear that he meant every word.

Tyson let a half smile break out on his face and he took a step closer to Castle and spoke softly. "See everything I have said about you is true. You are just like me I just had to push you far enough."

"Maybe we are the same." Castle conceded with a depressed sigh. "But then you should know why it is a bad idea to push me that far." Castle then looked Tyson in the eyes and refused to blink or break eye contact in any way. "If we are the same then think of every dark deed you have ever done and ask yourself,do I want that to happen to me? If the answer is no then leave my family alone. And if you think I can't come up with something horrible enough that it would scare you read my books and tell me that I can't think of something fitting for you. Leave this between us."

To Castle's surprise Tyson just nodded. "You are right this is between us,bringing them in right now would be no fun. It would just lead to the end of the game and I don't think either of us wants that."

"I could live without it." Castle stated.

"Really you don't want to be the one who hunts me down? That's a lie and you know it. As for me well I can always find another Jenifer and it wouldn't be the same playing with out you any more."

"So what are you going to do with me?" Castle asked grimly.

"Nothing someone will find you soon I am just going to take your credit cards and use your money to start up again,that should be enough punishment for now. See you around Castle." Tyson said and an evil smile spread across his whole face and before Castle could say anything else he was gone.

When he was sure Tyson was gone Castle let out a primal cry,he had been beaten and now he just had to sit and wait for rescue,everything he had been through in the past few day had been for nothing. Castle then knew what failure felt like,Tyson would go on killing bankrolled by him at that moment it was more then he could bare and he through himself backwards in a fit of blind rage. To Castle's complete surprise the back of the chair broke! He wasn't completely free but he could move his arms,with the gathering excitement that only a life and death struggle can bring Castle quickly freed himself and dashed out of the bathroom and into the main living area of the apartment. He was feeling weak,sick,and tired but he couldn't let Tyson get away. He needed a quick way to reach street level and he found it. The fire escape was just out side of the window. He climbed out and was about half way down when he spotted him,Tyson was climbing into a bright blue ford fusion and taking off. Castle was suddenly glad he had parked his Ferari on the street he had been in such a hurry. He dashed down and climbed into the driver's seat and took off. Normally he would have taken time to observe how cool and unlikely this all was but at that moment all he could think about was getting Tyson.

For a minute Castle was afraid that he had lost Tyson and he scanned the road ahead in a panic and then as if it were fate he spotted Tyson's care stopped at the intersection at the end of the street. Castle wasn't sure what to do at that moment. He didn't have a phone and he could easily lose Tyson in traffic. He had to stop him but how? That was when Castle noticed that there were no other cars behind Tyson and he knew that what he was thinking of was stupid but he couldn't think of anything else. Castle braced himself and pushed the peddle all the was to the floor. The car leaped to life and at a high rate of speed headed towards the tail end of Tyson's car. Tyson tried to get his car moving but it was too late,Castle's world became noting but the shaking of the car from the impact and the sound of broken metal and glass. Castle was hit in the face by the air bag and it knock him senseless for a moment but he would not let himself pass out,he jammed on the breaks and his car stopped. Tyson was not so lucky with his car in drive and taking the brunt of the impact it skidded into the intersection at the same moment a bus began crossing it,the car hit the middle left hand side of the bus dead center. Castle could hear the screams of people all around him both the bystanders on the street and the passengers on the bus. He then saw something that made his blood run cold,Tyson staggering out of the wreckage of his car,Castle couldn't let him get away so he fought against his own body and pulled himself out of his own car.

Castle could see Tyson about a dozen feet ahead of him just barely staying on his feet but Castle was not in any better shape still when he saw Tyson pull a gun out of his coat pocket Castle knew he had to act fast. He did the only thing he could think of he put his head down and charged head first at Tyson. He slammed into Tyson and reached for the gun. Tyson's right hand went into the air and the two began a struggle for the gun. Both men were shaken from the crash but it looked like Tyson was getting the upper hand so again doing the only thing he could think of Castle kneed Tyson in the groin as hard as he could. Tyson let out a cry of pain and loosened his grip on the gun and then Castle twisted it out of his hand. Tyson looked like he was going to make a play for it but Castle jumped back and pointing the gun dead center between Tyson's eye.

"If you know anything about me then you know what a good shot I am and you will not try anything." Castle gasped out.

"You don't get it I will get out of prison and going on like I always have. Your only choice if you want to stop me is to show the world that we are the same and kill me right here." Tyson said as he licked some of the blood that was coming out of the many cuts on his face off of his top lip.

"I don't think so you see I caught you this time and even if you avoid the needle I can still make sure that you can never hurt anyone without becoming you." Castle said and a grim determined look past over his face as he lowered the gun,took careful aim,and then fired a single round into Tyson's right knee. Tyson fell to the ground screaming in pain. Castle then dropped the gun so that the police that he was sure would be showing up any moment would not get the wrong idea and took a step forward so he was standing above Tyson like some sort of judge pronouncing sentence. He had pick up a thing or two about acting over his lifetime from his mother and he used everything he knew at that moment so he would look as calm and unfazed as he could to the man who was screaming below him. "I learned while researching one of my books that the knee is the most painful place to get shot. You will be walking around with a limp and in the most pain you can imagine for the rest of your life. Every time you take a step remember that the man who beat you,the man who caught you is a millionaire with a lifetime of shady contacts he made while researching books and that if you get out of prison for any reason he will put a million dollar bounty on your head and come looking for you. Make no mistake this is over."

Castle then turned and walked away he was keeping an eye on Tyson but he had to drop down and take a seat on the sidewalk. He hear police cars pulling up and he let out a sigh of relief. He had a lot of explaining to do but at last the nightmare that had hung over his head for the past three years was over. 3XK was gone and he could finally get a good night's sleep. He had stopped the killer and he now knew more then ever that he could do this job even if Beckett was not there,he had won.

**Well please let me know what you think there is one more chapter coming and that will be the last one of this story. Thanks for your support. What did you think of the showdown,was it any good? Also do you want more Wrightverse stories after this? Let me know in the reviews,thanks for reading.**


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

It was three days after Castle's encounter with Tyson when everyone finally got a chance to meet in Wright's hospital room and talk about the events of the case. Spirits were high if tempered by the fact that officer Simpson had died on the case,but even Castle was feeling more upbeat then he expected as he stood in the room that evening wearing a brand new casual suit that Alexis assured him he looked great in.

"Anyway just as we got down to street level the place just exploded!" Ryan said excitedly at one point.

"Sounds like Tyson didn't treat his friends any better then his enemies." Wright observed.

"Yeah CSU found the remains of a bomb that was wired to a cellphone hidden under one of the floorboards." Esposito explained with a sigh.

"Yeah Tyson doesn't really trust anyone." Castle stated taking a step forward.

"So how did you ending up slamming Tyson into the side of a bus?" right asked.

"Mostly by being stupid." By being stupid Castle replied with a grin.

"I figured that but what stupid things in particular did you do?" Wright pressed.

"Okay fine you want to know what I did here it is." Castle said with a sigh and he went on to tell his story leaving out certain details that were too personal,and other things like Colin or the threat of the million dollar bounty that could just get him into trouble. When he finished everyone was silent for a moment,Wright was the first to speak.

"Well that does it. I have to get out of here soon because you need a partner to keep you from doing stupid things like entering a serial killer's home on your own." Wright said lightening the mood.

"Well we can't wait to get you back on the job,when will that be by the way?" Ryan asked.

"About three months the doctors say." Wright replied sadly.

"Well we will do our best to hold down the fort and keep solving crimes until you get back." Epsosito said.

"Yeah well take care Wright I need to get home or Jenny will start calling me soon." Ryan said and then he turned and left the room.

"I had better get going to,Castle you coming?" Esposito asked.

"No,I am meeting someone here." Castle explained turning to his friend.

"Okay see you later,take care Wright." Esposito said then a moment later he was gone as well leaving just Castle and Wright in the room.

"So what are your plans for the future?' Wright asked.

"Well when you return to work so will I." Castle said sitting down in a small chair on Wright's right hand side.

"Not before?" Wright asked.

"Hey you said it yourself,I need a partner." Castle replied lightly and then after seeing the look on Wright's face he was suddenly worried and added. "That is okay with you,isn't it?"

It took Wright a second to answer worrying Castle even more. "Yeah that is fine I am just not sure how much good I am going to be."

"What do you mean?" Castle asked with a mixture of shock and concern.

"I mean how much help was I on this case? I got stabbed and I screwed up questioning a suspect so that we lost a day of work. Wouldn't you rather follow a good detective around?" Wright asked honestly.

Castle decided to nip this in the bud right at that moment. "Look we found a dirty cop that slipped under everyone's nose and you help put the case back on track with that little speech you gave,I wouldn't have found Tyson without you. I'd say that is pretty good work for your first case. Yeah you have a lot to learn but you will learn it and you are my partner now,understand?"

"Yeah I guess I just needed to hear it from you." Wright said looking as if a weight had been taken off of her shoulders. "So what are you going to do until I get back to work?"

"Well I was thinking of writing after this whole thing my phone is ringing off the hook with offers from publishers,but I don't think I will after all." Castle replied.

"Why not,Can't you keep writing even if you are working cases?" Wright asked.

"Yes I can but I figured out that I can't tell the story I want to tell without basing a character on someone I promised I would never base a character on and I keep my word." Castle answered seriously.

Wright thought about this for a moment and then let out a heavy sigh. "Okay you can base a character on me." She said relenting and Castle's eyes suddenly went wide with excitement. "But there are two conditions." She said forcefully. "First you can never tell anyone this character is based on me. I am still working my way up and I don't need the press,I want to make it on my own merits."

"I understand." Castle nodded as he stood up,he was feeling a rush he had not felt in a lot time,it was the type of rush he only got when he came up with a new story idea that excited him and he could not wait to tell. "What is the second?" He asked,he now had more then one reason to be excited about the night ahead of him,he had a new story to wright.

"A portion of the profits have to go to the benevolence fund for families of police officers. Deal?" Wright asked holding out her right hand.

"Deal." Castle said taking her hand and shaking it. "Now if you will excuse me I must be going. Can't wait to see you back at work. See ya."

"See you around Castle." Wright replied and then Castle turned and left the room in a good mood but that wasn't to last. He had walked no more then a dozen paces when he saw a very angry looking Captain Gates heading his way.

" I want a word with you." Before Castle could duck down another hall she closed the distance and he had no choice but to talk to her.

"Ah Captain what brings you here?" Castle asked putting his best foot forward.

"I was told I could find you here and I want to have a word with you. When I tell you to stay way from a case what makes you think you can then chase down a suspect and then put a bullet in him?! Am I some sort of joke to you,did you really think you could get away with it and that I would stand for that sort of thing in my precinct. If Tyson wasn't pleading guilty most of the case against him would get thrown out. You put people's lives in danger and I will not stand for it!" Gates barked out angrily.

Castle hung his head suddenly it hit him just how badly he had screwed up. "Sorry Captain,I lost my head. If you don't want me around the precinct any more I understand."

"Don't think that I didn't think of kicking you out and if you ever disobey an order of mine you will be but it seems I owe you a favor." Gates said softening a little.

"Really?" Castle asked cocking an eyebrow as if he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Yeah after the last few days it was looking like I was going to be asked to resign because of Jackson and our computers being taken down but all of the sudden this morning I got a personal call from the mayor who informed me that someone had told him that if it wasn't for me a mad bombing serial killer would be on the loose instead of in jail so I have his personal support. I have never even met the mayor before,you wouldn't know who talked to him would you ?" Gates asked giving him a hard look.

"Well whoever he is,he sounds like a smart man who doesn't like seeing good people taken down because of things they can't control." Castle said carefully.

"Yeah well whoever it was should know that I will do my job the same as always and he shouldn't think he can get away with anything because of this." Gates said in tone that made sure she got her point across.

"I am sure whoever it was knows that." Castle replied.

"Good just so we are clear,now if you will excuse me I am going to go check on detective Wright,it's about time I visited her." Gates said and then she walked down the hall.

Castle breathed a sigh of relief and then started to catch his breath,that had gone better then he had hoped but a second later his breath was taken away again.

"Rick I am ready to go whenever you are." he heard a female voice call. He turned and saw Julie Smith standing in front of him in a blue dress,it was the first time he had seen her in anything but scrubs and she looked stunning. "My babysitter can only stay till ten thirty,so I have to be home by then." She explained. "Are you okay?"

"Oh I am a lot better then okay." Castle said walking up to her and taking her arm in his and they began to chat as they walked to the elevator. Castle thought to himself about the past week. Life was funny in a way it had been the worst week of his life but in another way it could be seen as one of the best since he now knew that his life was sent. He knew what he wanted to do,he was sure the new idea would put him back on top,and at that very moment while they were standing in the elevator he was feeling happier then he could remember being in a long time.

Smith must have noticed him lost in thought because she spoke up. "Hey are you sure you are okay?" She asked concerned.

"Yeah I was just thinking about some of the strange changes life can throw your way." Castle said with a thoughtful grin.

"Tell me about it I learned a long time ago that life is full of those and the only way to deal with it is to roll with the punches." Smith said with a laugh.

"Yeah I guess so because you never know when something good will be around the corner." Castle mused.

"Like a sexy surgeon." Smith asked.

"Or a hansom best selling author." Castle returned and then the elevator doors slid opened and Castle and Smith walked out arm in arm. Castle didn't know what the future would hold but he knew he could face it and he was happy.

**The End**

**Well that is it I hope you enjoyed it. Even if you didn't please leave a review. My goal was to wright a whole story without Beckett that people would like and I hope you did. I haven't decided if I am going to wright another story in this universe yet so please let me know with reviews or PMS if you want one. If I do write a sequel it will be in about a month or so I need to spend some time on my Mass Effect story I was forced to put on hold when my computer died so I could finish this story. Thanks for sticking with me through all the computer problems,you guys have been the best. Speaking of I wrote this final chapter on my new computer. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed my little exercise,see you latter.**


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